【刚硬的东西会断裂；柔韧的东西才能幸存】🌉
下次当你看到桥墩内部的黑色橡胶垫时，要知道你看到的是抗震减震器。

地震发生时，这些橡胶垫发挥着不可思议的作用：隔震。原本整座桥梁会随着地面震动而振动（导致桥梁坍塌），但这些弹性轴承却能让桥梁“滑行”过震。

橡胶吸收震动。

钢层提供支撑，足以承受数千吨的重量。

铅芯（通常隐藏在内部）吸收能量。

这项价值 500 美元的技术，保护着价值 5 亿美元的基础设施，以及成千上万途经此桥的人们的生命安全。
Rigid things break; Flexible things survive. 🌉

Next time you see these black rubber pads inside a bridge column, know that you’re looking at a seismic shock absorber.

During an earthquake, these blocks do something incredible: Base Isolation. Instead of the entire bridge vibrating at the same frequency as the shaking ground (which causes collapse), these elastomeric bearings allow the bridge to "glide" over the movement.

Rubber absorbs the displacement.

Steel layers provide the strength to hold thousands of tons.

Lead cores (often hidden inside) dampen the energy.

It’s a $500 piece of technology protecting a $500 million piece of infrastructure—and the thousands of lives traveling over it. http://t.cn/AXbPcHp9