Cement Reinforce with Steel Bar for Super Gas Rig Supporting Structure

Flexible concrete - an obvious oxymoron, right?

The video opens with an historical background to the improvements on concrete as well as a base recipe for making concrete - 3 parts aggregate, 2 parts sand, 1 part cement. That's a wonderful mixture for a great material - in (repeat after me) compression.

That's not a mixture for a great support structure for a North Sea oil rig that needs to have enough give to flex with the waves.

Add a few reinforcing bars, though, and the concrete becomes a radically different product.

Steel - great under tension...concrete - great under compression...reinforced steel - the dog's nuts.

British accents - also brilliant all around. Only they can give you that kind of...science.

(Warning, the linked videos there - the Brainiac video - show bad science, faked demonstrations, they should be watched only to show what doesn't really happen unless you lie to your audience. Here's my evidence.)