WHAT DUCT TAPE CAN’T DO.

WHAT DUCT TAPE CAN’T DO. A friend of ours used to say that duct tape was the solution to most problems. This article by Ross Pomeroy at the Newton Blog (link via Real Clear Science) lists some of the problems that duct tape can solve— from getting rid of warts to fixing a lunar rover. One problem it can’t solve is sealing ducts. This was established in 1998 by a study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The study tested 33 different sealants which were applied to seal leaky joints and then subjected to temperature and stress tests for a period of three months. Max Sherman, the physicist who led the study, said: “Of all the things we tested, only duct tape failed. It failed reliably and often quite catastrophically.”