How Many Rubber Bands Will Crush a Human Skull?

Introduction

• Inspired by TikTok videos of watermelons exploding due to rubber bands
• Curious if the same can happen with a human skull
• Objective: To determine how many rubber bands it would take to crush a human skull

Initial Experiments

Self-Experiment

• Tried putting rubber bands on his own head
• Number of Bands: 10 bands
  • Result: Significant pain and discomfort
  • Observation: No structural damage but painful, unsafe to continue on himself

Watermelon Test

• Needed a baseline for comparison
• Process:
  • Rubber bands incrementally added
  • Number of Bands: Approximately 400 bands
  • Observation: Watermelon exploded dramatically

Skull Simulation

Creating a Simulated Skull

• Used a leftover skull from a previous video as the base
• Added a water balloon with food coloring as brain simulation and ballistic gel
• Realized seam in the skull would make it unfit for testing

Clear Ballistics Skull

• Sent by Clear Ballistics company
• High-quality realistic skull model

Testing on the Ballistic Skull

Initial Phase

• Started with 24 rubber bands
  • Result: Damaged the ballistic gel but not the skull’s structure

Advanced Phase

• Added up to 400 bands
  • Result: Separated the skull from the neck but didn't crush the skull

Final Band Count

• Continued adding up to 1,400 rubber bands
  • Result: Skull finally exploded
  • Observation: Took significantly more bands compared to watermelon

Conclusion

• Around 1,400 rubber bands are needed to crush a fabricated ballistic skull