How much pressure does it take to crush a concrete cylinder?

Great under compression, lousy under tension...concrete has its strengths. That's why we use it to build dams, buildings, anything that needs to withstand something really heavy pushing down on it.

This test, applying a million and a half pounds of pressure to a concrete cylinder isn't something that most of us - a few matsci teachers in Washington state, not withstanding - can't do in our classrooms, but it's the kind of thing that's well worth testing for a roomful of visiting kids and parents at your engineering open house.

Yeah, there's science there, but there's also wanton destruction. That's always cool.