– How come the base of tall buildings don’t pulverize under the weight of the building?

Question

Take for example the Taipei 101 Tower:

– 508.2 meters high
– Weighs 700,000 tons
– Ground floor is 57×63.5 meters, which is 3619.5 m²
– That means an area of 3619.5m² has to hold up 700.000 tons, which is ~193 tons per m² which is 193.000 kilograms per m²

I don’t know but 193.000 kilograms feels like an unbearable crushing all-pulverizing weight to me.

Obviously it works since the Taipei 101 tower and other huge buildings exist, but intuitively I don’t understand how the bases of large and tall buildings don’t instantly pulverize under the weight of everything above it.

In: 1790

Answer 1

Sometimes they do. take a look at this example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWn-HMd5Co&t=0s