What Makes A Home Earthquake Proof?

Aim: To build the tallest, best-looking earthquake-proof house.

Research: 

1. Check with your local building department. Houses built to today's building codes should be strong enough to keep people safe during an earthquake.
2. Poured perimeter foundations.
3. Unreinforced masonry foundations.
4. Slab foundations.
5. Post-and-pier foundations.

Equipment: 

• 4  pieces of paper
• 4 cotton buds
• 6 think sticks
• 6 popsicle sticks
• 3 small + 1 large cork
• 2 styrofoam cups
• Scissors + tape

Scoring:

1. Was it the tallest?
2. Did it look the best?
3. WAS IT EARTHQUAKE PROOF?

Final Results:

• Was it successful? Why/Why not?

- It was successful with our first try versing to another group. And we reached the second and level with another competing house, and ours fell first. Which makes us 2nd place. For me, it's still successful at some point.

• What do architects do to make super tall buildings safe from disastrous earthquakes

- The taller a structure, the more flexible it is. The more flexible it is, the less energy is required to keep it from toppling or collapsing when the earth's shaking makes it sway. You can feel this same phenomenon while you're riding a bus or subway. It requires less effort to remain standing if you flex your body and flow with the bumps and jolts than if you stiffly try to defy them. Because shorter buildings are stiffer than taller ones, a three-story apartment house is considered more vulnerable to earthquake damage than a 30-story skyscraper. When planning the seismic safety of a building, structural engineers must design the support elements of shorter buildings to withstand greater forces than those of taller buildings.

(Architects also consider the materials that they're going to use to make the building less vulnerable to collapse)

San Francisco's TransAmerica pyramid is famous for its architecture. Diagonal trusses at its base protect it from both horizontal and vertical forces

Source: https://www.exploratorium.edu/faultline/damage/building.html

Picture of your building + a really tall cool looking building