Scientific Roots of the Popular Playground Known as Monkey Bars

Have you ever wondered how were kids’ playground items initially created? Is there any science behind such epitomes of kids’ outdoor play, like monkey bars? Apparently, there is. This type of climbing frame was first designed by the son of a Princeton mathematician more than a century ago. So, how did the idea come to him? Scroll down for the whole story.

Monkey Bars: Creation

Like many ingenious inventions, the story of monkey bars starts simple. When Hinton was a kid, his father, a Princeton mathematician, created a bamboo structure for him and his siblings to play with. The creation, Hintton’s father thought, would help children learn more about the three-dimensional world they’re a part of.

However, as Hinton recalled later, he and his siblings were much more drawn toward the sole activity of climbing this very structure. Hinton upgraded his father’s initial creation, thus turning it into a cubic metal frame. Following how monkeys play in the wild, the creator designed the frame to look like “a forest top,” through which kids could move and play. The structure was patented in 1923, and that’s how the monkey bars were born!

The Science Behind the Ingenious Invention

Even though generations of Americans have spent their childhood climbing monkey bars, few individuals really know the science behind the invention. So, what makes them so appealing? In his first patent, Hinton commented that climbing is an integral part of locomotion, which our predecessors mastered. More recently, anthropologists have found a link between climbing and play among many primates.

Still, the invention is subjected to a heated debate about child safety. Those opposing monkey bars argue that the structure results in more injuries than any other playground feature. Hospital emergency room data reveal that falling (and other injuries) caused while playing on monkey bars and its many variations hint at how dangerous it can be.