Every year, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign holds their very popular Engineering Open House day, which is full of fun activities and events. One of the most popular events this year was crushing a concrete cylinder with a giant mechanical press. 

The Bad Astronomer was at this year’s pillar crushing, and caught the entire scene on camera. 

The crowd was nearly silent as the giant crusher made contact with the 800 lb concrete cylinder. For over a minute, the host read off as the kilopounds of pressure built up until finally, the cylinder gave way at 1,600,000 pounds of pressure. 

The crowd burst into applause as the host asked, “Am I the only one that jumped?”