Firstly, it transfers the load of the structure into the ground. Let's start our exploration of the structural engineering of Jenga with a look at loads.Ī foundation serves a couple of key purposes. An accidental bump of the game table is an excellent scale version of a catastrophic earthquake. Buildings, after all, are vulnerable to the same forces that can topple a Jenga tower - forces like loads, tension, compression, torsion and more. But even this simple game can teach us a lot about the more complex world of structural engineering. Part of Jenga's charm is its simplicity nothing but wooden blocks and gravity. (Jenga means 'build' in Swahili.) Scott played the game with her family in Africa for years she eventually left a job with Intel to launch Jenga at a 1983 toy fair, where it became an instant gaming phenomenon. Jenga was invented by Leslie Scott, a British citizen born and raised in Kenya and Tanzania. If you're the one who finally knocks it over, you lose. Eventually the tower becomes dangerously unstable. Each player must remove a block from near the bottom of the tower and place it on the top using only one hand at a time. Each level of blocks should be perpendicular to the level below it. The object of the game is simple: You start with a stack of 54 blocks - three blocks across, 18 levels high. Jenga is one of the most popular games in the world, third only to Monopoly and Scrabble in the number of units sold.

Jenga building