After interviewing my father who works on cars and uses math and geometry to do his job, he told me that geometry is used in architecture.  Geometry is used to construct secure structures and to do these it requires the knowledge of shapes and the equations that come along with them.  Knowing this changes my approach to building our structure because we are going to be using a material that is very flimsy and weak and we are going to have to make it strong and durable because there will lots of weight on the top and our structure will need to be able to hold it all.  We are going to have to have lots of reinforcement for it to be able to do this.  We are going to have to use the shape of a rhombus or a pyramid on its side because these two shapes have the best bases and can reinforced easily.  My suggestion is for us to make a strong base, with lots of support in the middle due to all the compression that is going to be on it.  For our strong support system we are going to use corrugation because it is great reinforcement and provides a strong middle.

Questions:

      The strength of a structure determines whether it will survive in our world. It's survival can be determined by many things such as nature, time, or materials.  Some natural disasters that can have devastating effects on structures would be earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or even a steaming summer day that changes to chilly at night (temperature change).  Earthquakes can affect buildings by throwing them off balance and making them tip over or crumble because they have no center support system.  Hurricanes can blow buildings over with weak support systems or with flooding with can weaken the base of the structure and then it gives out from below.  In a tornado the winds push and blow which can cause a structure when in contact with a tornado to push and then pull back very fast which can tear the structure apart.  What can be done is that the bases of structures have to be firm and square for more balance and as the structure gets taller it grows less wide other wise the structure can become flimsy and shaky.  Also by having more support in the middle then the structure has less of a chance of crashing down because compression can be put on the middle without it crumbling.  Also if the structure has counter weights then the weights can take the wave of energy that goes through the structure.  Some materials that are used affected more by compression or tension than the other are: 

•  Concrete-this material is better under compression because it won’t crash unless under large amounts of pressure. 

•  Wood-this material is better under tension because if it were under compression then the wood would splinter under the pressure.

• Plaster-this material is strong under compression.

• Brick-this material is strong under compression and under tension.

• Metal-this material is better under tension than compression because metal can bend very easily.  Another question that I have is I want to find out how such flimsy material as folders can hold massive weight without before crushing.