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| The person who I interviewed was Franzie Loepp. He has made many trips down to the gulf coast to rebuild communities after the horrific catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina two years ago. He has also been a major part in many other buildings in the Twin-Cities. Because of his experience in construction I asked if I could pick his brain and ask him a few questions about tension and compression. First off I simply wanted to know what kind of structure could withstand the most weight, and which kind of structure could best withstand the compression it is under. Without any hesitation he said a cylinder or a column. Weight and compression go hand in hand. When weight is applied a structure goes under compression not tension. If you don't want your structure to sway very much or for it to be ridged, you would want to use triangle to support it. Everyone knows that to have a sturdy building you must have a strong foundation. To achieve this you must have a footing around the foundation. But to make a footing you must follow one simple rule. The footing must be 3 times as wide as the foundation and just as thick. For example, if a houses foundation is 10ft.x10ft.x4ft. then on each side you would need 10ft. of footing, and under the foundation you would need a 4ft. thick footing. The purpose of making a structure is for it to stay and be able to be used, to ensure that a structure doesn't fall apart you would most likely want to use triangles. Lastly short and tell structures can hold the same amount of weight. The height doesn't matter in this case, what does matter is the type of foundation and the materials used to build the structure. |
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 Our structure held the most weight in our hour. It met the height requirement, measuring in at 9.5in. Our structure met the weight requirement of 45lbs. in fact we crushed the weight requirement, our structure supported a whole 405 lbs. If you took a good look at our design you would find many cylinders. Cylinders are the structure that support the most weight. Also we made our structure wide enough to comfortably hold the 45lbs. weight without a problem. If I were to change one thing about the design we chose I would have put more cylinders into it. In my opinion the more cylinders you have the more weight it'll hold. Also I would have made sure that there weren't and faults in the outer triangle of our structure. Ultimately those minor faults were the downfall to our design. I might also put more glue on it, I know it sounds a little odd but because of all the glue we put on and into our structure that added much rigidity and strength to our structure. All in all I believe that our design was very well thought out and executed. |
Ever wonder what materials allows those skyscrapers to be so tall and not topple over? I know I did, and I was surprised on my findings. Simple building materials such as beams, bricks/cement, wood, and smaller beams make up these complex buildings possible. The beams are used to hold the structure up and work best under compression. Wood was first used in these great buildings to make walls and floorboards, as well as minor parts in the building structure. Now bricks and cement are more common for the jobs that wood once had. These materials are best under compression because when enough tension is applied they more that likely will snap. In every structure you need to have a balance in compression and tension, and this is where the smaller beams come in. These smaller beams or sometimes metal cables are used to hold everything together. When connected to the larger beams they provide adequate tension in a structure. Beams are ridged structure supported at both ends, it is subject to bending stresses perpendicular to it's length. Beams are normally made out of metal but every once in a while you may see a beam made out of wood. In many cases you would use an "I" beam, this beam is the best beam to use because it is very strong and it has a proper weight. An angle iron isn't used very often but when it is it can be seen on bridges you might find in your local park. Solid beams are used to hold something up. So lets say you have a house along the coast and you don't want it too flood, you would use solid beams to suspend it above the ground. Round beams are very similar to cables you would find on suspension bridges that aren't very long. Rectangular beams are the last type, when they are fastened to a solid upright beam they are extremely strong but any other way they aren't. Some of the tallest buildings are made up of the same materials you would find in your house. The CN Tower in Toronto, Ont is the tallest of them all coming in at a whopping 1,821ft. Then comes the Sears Tower in Chicago, Il, the Empire State Building in New York, NY, the Amoco Building in Chicago, Il and lastly the John Hancock Center also in Chicago, Il. Those these buildings are made up of many of the same materials house are they are specially designed to sway in the wind, only slightly, so to keep an equal balance of tension and compression. If these buildings couldn't move at all they would come crashing down to earth during a wind storm. Lets say you live in a dry hot climate and your friend lives on the coast line. Well you wouldn't want your houses to be designed the same because you live in different climates. Architects take this into consideration when they design a house. If you live on the coast they might suspend your house above the ground while if you live in a dry climate they might make a house with thicker walls to trap in the cool air from the air conditioning. As you can see there are many different designs and strategies to serve one purpose, to hold people. | |
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