XIII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2021

There are many different hobbies around the world. Some of them are so unusual that it is hard to believe in their existence. It is much better to do something unusual and maybe a bit strange than to collect stamps and candy wrappers. An unusual hobby makes you feel yourself unique. There is a saying: «The best job is a high-paid hobby». You can say that it is impossible but Bryan Berg will overpersuade you.

Bryan Berg is an American professional card stacker who builds large-scale house of cards. Bryan Berg is the unchallenged card-building king and the Guinness worldrecord holder, but he still doesn't get why nobody has tried to take him down in his «hobby». A house of cards is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. Berg's basic building unit is a four-card «cell», which makes a strong foundation. He doesn't use glue or something similar to it in his houses of cards. The first time he broke a Guinness World Record, he was in high school. His first record was 14 feet 6 inches tall and his last one record is almost 25 feet tall. He has broken his own record many times – each time a little taller. «How tall could I build? The sky’s the limit. I’m only limited by time and how high a ceiling I have».

Berg first broke the world record for the world's tallest house of cards in 1992 at the age of seventeen, with a 4.4 meters tall tower. His height record is 7.6 meters, which took around 1500 decks of cards. Besides the creation, Berg loves to destroy his «buildings» at the end of his work. By the way, Berg is not just a card stacker. He is also an architect, graduated from Harvard. That why his masterpieces are so strong. Bryan dedicated almost 30 years of his life to this art.

Trained as an architect, Berg says he's the only person he knows of who is building card structures on a large scale publicly and making a living doing it. Bryan Berg usually builds the copies of world-famous buildings such as Burj Dubai, Empire State Building, Cinderella Castle and so on. It is interesting to build a house of cards and you should at least try it. It will take a lot of time to learn, but once you'll be able to make such a buildings, you will probably become a famous person just like Bryan Berg.

Sources:

1.«House of cards? No, he stacks skyscrapers» CNN, November 14, 2007 2.«About Berg» Bryan Berg. November 10, 2007

3.«Bryan Berg: Man Trying To Set Record For Tallest Card Tower Sees Structure Crash At Last Second». Huffington Post. September 18, 2009.

4.«Bryan Berg». Wikipedia.

5.«House of cards». Man's health. September 12, 2003