16 Hours, 27.4K Rolls of TP, and a Possible World Record

Michigan high school's robotics team hopes Guinness OKs world's tallest toilet paper pyramid
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 14, 2020 8:49 AM CST
This May Be World's Tallest TP Pyramid
Members of the Bullock Creek High School robotics team prepare to take down the world's largest toilet paper pyramid on Monday.   (Kaytie Boomer/The Bay City Times via AP)

When Maxton Herst was a freshman at Michigan's Bullock Creek High School, he left YouTube on autoplay one day, and one of the videos that popped up showed something that piqued his interest: the world's tallest toilet-paper pyramid. Per MLive.com, he brought up the idea with fellow robotics club members, but no one really cared. Three years later, however, now the club's captain, Herst brought his dream to life, with the result "an ode to Egypt that no ancient civilization could have ever predicted," per FOX 2 Detroit. Over the holiday break, team members stacked 27,434 rolls of Reliable Brand toilet paper more than 16 feet high in the Midland high school's atrium. The entire structure, which took 16 hours over two days to erect, weighs about 5 tons. To put it in further context: "The bottom three layers—that's probably about how much toilet paper the average person uses in a lifetime," Herst says.

The process was a somewhat monotonous one. "Every single roll you place, you want it to be in the correct spot," Herst notes. "It was just kind of mind-numbing work." He also says the final moments, while thrilling, didn't end with a bang: "There was a lot of excitement when we got to the last few layers, but the final roll at the top was actually pretty anti-climactic." The Detroit Free Press notes students started to disassemble the pyramid—which they hope that Guinness World Records will review and consider for an entry—on Monday. So what happens to all of that TP now? The robotics club hopes to sell as much of it as possible to fundraise, then donate any leftover rolls. (More strange stuff stories.)

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