The original purpose of this experiment was to find which building design would best withstand an earthquake.
The results of the experiment were that the buildings with cross-bracing stood, on average, about 10 seconds longer than the buildings with the base isolator. The shear core buildings stood almost as long as the base isolator. All of the building designs helped the buildings because the control group did the worst. The cross-bracing buildings were very sturdy and didn’t rock. They fell only when the toothpicks slipped out of the clay.