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  "path": "/26/04/the-fabulous-design-of-duct-tape",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-09T17:30:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://kottke.org",
  "tags": [
    "The Engineer Guy",
    "this video",
    "Bill Hammack",
    "design",
    "engineering",
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  "textContent": "Bill Hammack, aka The Engineer Guy, is an amazing engineering educator and in this video he explains how duct tape is designed to simultaneously do three things well: “a) adhere with light pressure, b) stay in place, yet c) be removable”.\n\n> Controlling the stickiness of tape is of utmost importance. In fact, a key element of engineering tape is controlling its stickiness — and only by doing that can tape be wound into a useful roll. If the tape sticks too tightly to itself, we could not use it.\n\nGotta be honest: I was not expecting Silly Putty to make a relevant guest appearance during his explanation. And I love the ramp & ball test for tape stickiness near the end…a very elegant and simple bit of engineering:\n\n> Pressure sensitive tape predates much of the most elementary molecular understanding of adhesion; tape has been mass produced since the early twentieth century. That engineers developed and refined tape without this knowledge is no surprise — recall that the purpose of the engineering method is to solve problems before we have full scientific knowledge.\n\n**Tags:** Bill Hammack · design · engineering · science · video",
  "title": "The Fabulous Engineering and Design of Duct Tape",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-09T17:30:00.000Z"
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