The Engineering Design Behind the Eiffel Tower

Many of the world's most famous landmarks were all made possible with complex engineering designs. One of these most notably is the Eiffel Tower in France, which was built between 1887 and 1889 as an entrance arch for the World's Fair, in celebration for the French Revolution. Here in this article we shall look at some of the design engineering that was involved to create the now world famous tower.

The two engineers that had the idea for the Eiffel Tower was Emile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin, they came up with the concept in June 1884 of a very tall tower. The design of the tower was to be much like a pylon, with four lattice work columns separated at the base that joined again at the top. The project was a confident one as the design wanted the tower to be at the grand height of 300 meters. On September the 18th 1884 the tower design was patented under the description 'for a new configuration allowing the construction of metal supports and pylons capable of exceeding a height of 300 metres.'

The public however were going to be a tough crowd to please for this project, so both engineers asked for the help of an architect called Stephen Sauvestre to help work on the overall appearance of the tower. The architect proposed for this grand engineering design that the legs of the monument be dressed with stonework pedestals. He also suggested a bulb-shaped design for the very top of the tower and other ornamental parts to decorate the tower. Many elements of the engineering design of the tower were simplified, but the stunning arches of the base of the tower remained.

The Eiffel Tower's engineering design also took a lot of mathematics to create, the curvature of the uprights needed to offer as much resistance as possible. At the time the tower was built many people were concerned that the tower was too daring of a shape. The tower of course needed to be strong enough to withstand the strength of the wind, which was calculated mathematically. Theories of this mathematical equation of wind resistance have been proposed throughout the years. Most recently though a theory on counterbalancing the wind point on each part of the tower, with the tension between the constructions has been looked at. The tower however does sway two to three inches in the wind.

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The Shocking Secret Behind Your Math Blocks

You're smart, witty and intelligent.

You've overcome many challenges in your life.

And yet, you can't do simple math sums in your
head.

Ever wonder why not?

In this short article, you're going to discover
the ONE reason you struggle with mental math.

And I promise you, it's NOT the reason you think
it is.

You see, it's NOT your natural math ability, or
the way you were born, or any of the other lame
explanations you've been conditioned to believe.

No.

The real reason you're not a calculating whiz kid
is startlingly simple.

In fact it's right in front of your eyes as you
read these words now. And yet it's been hidden
from you all your life.

To understand it, you need to take a moment and
cast your mind back to your schooldays...

Imagine yourself in the math class, writing an
addition sum into your little notebook. Something
like this:

245 +

631

Doing what you were taught, you take your pencil
and first add up the units... (5 plus 1)

Then you add up the tens... (4 plus 3)

You do the same with the hundreds... (2 plus 6)

And finally you have your complete answer.

That's what you were taught. And that's how you do
math:

Units... Tens... Hundreds... Thousands... etc...

Except... now there's a problem.

Because the way you were taught to do math on
paper was suicidal to your ability to do math in
your head.

Do you know why?

Because you were taught how to do math...
BACKWARDS.

You were taught math back-to-front: from right-to-
left.

Think about it. When you read a number, how do you
do it?

Take a look at this number and read it out:

123

What did you say to yourself when you saw it?

You probably said "One Hundred and Twenty Three".
Or "One Two Three".

Whatever you said, I'll bet you didn't say...
"Uhm, 3 units, and then 2 tens that makes twenty,
and then 1 hundreds..."

The fact is, your mind processes numbers from left
to right. (The same way you're reading these words
now.) But the "school" part of your brain is
trying to process them in the opposite direction.

Are you beginning to see why you struggle to do
calculations in your head? Quite simply...

YOUR BRAIN IS STUCK IN REVERSE GEAR!

What would happen if you were taught to drive a
car the same way you were taught to do math?

- Your neck would ache from the strain of
constantly looking over your shoulder.

- You'd never go anywhere fast. And...

- You'd be a danger to everyone else on the road!

Pretty soon you'd give up driving completely, and
settle for public transport.

Just like the day you gave up trying to calculate
in your head... and settled for a lifetime of
calculator dependency.

Want to know another shocking secret?

If you have kids in school or college, you can
guarantee their brains are stuck in reverse gear
too.

Why?

Because the education establishment doesn't like
rapid change. It prefers the traditional "Tried &
Tested" approach.

Unfortunately, as you know, the traditional
approach doesn't always work.

(If it did, why are there an estimated two million
people suffering from 'math phobia' in the United
States alone?

And that's not including the millions more who
could dramatically improve their math ability just
by changing their approach.)

Let's look at that little addition sum again:

245 +

631

This is easy to do from left to right:

You add 2 and 6 to get 8.

You add 4 and 3 to get 7.

And you add 5 and 1 to get 6.

The answer is 876.

Simple, isn't it?

Look, if you learn nothing else about math...
start calculating from left to right.

With just a little practice you'll "read off" the
correct answer every time.

And you'll wonder why you missed the secret of
mental math for so long.

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