GoKawiilWe've all heard the old saying "it's like nailing jelly to a wall" to describe a task that is very difficult or impossible. But is our view of the difficulty of this task justified? Has anybody actually tried nailing jelly to a wall? In this experiment I attempt to establish, one way or the other, the validity of the old proverb.
Materials
I sourced the following materials from Sainsbury's and Focus.
They are: a 16oz claw hammer, a 200g pack of 3" (75mm) round wire nails, a selection of 135g packs of Hartley's jelly cubes, and a plank of wood, dimensions 850x200x18mm (approx. 33½"x7¾"x¾"). The plank of wood will play the part of the "wall". The type of wood, and its exact dimensions, are not important.
The length of the nails is important. Specifically, the nails should be longer than the depth of the bowl intended for use as the jelly mould. This is to enable the nail to go right through the finished jelly and into the wall without the nail first disapparing into the jelly.
The picture below shows the proposed jelly mould (an ordinary dessert bowl) and one of the nails next to it for comparison purposes.
A first attempt
A box of jelly, as purchased from the supermarket, contains twelve joined "cubes". The orange flavour is shown below. This is "concentrated" or "neat" jelly; the idea is that water is added to produce actual jelly. Of course, these cubes are much more viscous than the diluted mixture produced by adding water. Therefore, it should be easier to nail the concentrated cubes to the wall than the actual jelly.
In fact, the jelly didn't even need a nail to stay on the wall. It just stuck there. For good measure, I drove a nail through it. The jelly held in place.
This is called "cheating".
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