A bed of nails is an

oblong An oblong is a non-square rectangle. Oblong may also refer to: Places * Oblong, Illinois, a village in the United States * Oblong Township, Crawford County, Illinois, United States * A strip of land on the New York-Connecticut border in the Un ...

piece of wood, the size of a bed, with nails pointing upwards out of it. It appears to the spectator that anyone lying on this "bed" would be injured by the nails, but this is not so. Assuming the nails are numerous enough, the weight is distributed among them so that the pressure exerted by each nail is not enough to puncture the person's

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different d ...

Uses

One use of such a device is for

magic tricks Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

or physics demonstrations. A famous example requires a volunteer to lie on a bed of several thousand nails, with a board on top of him.

Cinder block A concrete masonry unit (CMU) is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. CMUs are some of the most versatile building products available because of the wide variety of appearances that can be achieved using them. Th ...

s are placed on the board and then smashed with a

sledgehammer A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...

. Despite the seemingly unavoidable force, the volunteer is not harmed: the force from the blow is spread among the thousands of nails, resulting in reduced pressure; the breaking of the blocks also dissipates much of the energy from the hammer. This demonstration of the principles of weight distribution requires that the weight of the volunteer be spread over as many nails as possible. The most dangerous part is the moment of lying down or getting up, when one's weight may briefly be supported on only a few nails. Some "beds" have rails mounted at the sides to help users lie down and get up safely. YOGI ON A BED OF SPIKES 1913

The bed of nails is used by some for

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

, particularly in Asia, and for certain alleged health benefits, such as back pain relief, through acupressure. Less traditional settings, such as science centers, may use an electronic retractable bed of nails, where the user lies on a flat plastic bed with holes in it, and can then activate the machine to have nails rise up all at once. The nails should retract before getting off the bed. This retraction eliminates the most dangerous part of a traditional bed of nails, getting on and off the bed.

''Guinness World Records''

Most motorcycles driven over the body while lying on a bed of nails achieved by Burnaby Q. Orbax of the Monsters of Schlock on 26 October 2015 when he had 70 motorbikes driven over him in two minutes while lying on a bed of nails. Heaviest concrete block break on a bed of nails achieved by Neal Hardy (Australia) on 12 February 2012 when he had 15 blocks weighing 774.99 kg (1708 lb 8 oz) placed on his chest and broken. The most melons chopped in half on somebody's stomach (with a samurai sword while they lay on a bed of nails) achieved by Johnny Strange (UK) on 13 October 2013 when he chopped 10 watermelons in half on the stomach of his assistant in 30 seconds. Most-layered bed of nails sandwich achieved by Vispi and his Team (all India) on 23 October 2019 when they performed a nine-layer bed of nails sandwich.

References

External links

The bed of nails in use as a school physics demonstration
Darylscience.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Bed Of Nails Sideshow attractions Asceticism Nail (fastener)