![]() Weidman, who said he became obsessed with the problem, began to read more about the life of Eiffel and his construction efforts. Calculations by Pinelis showed that all existing solutions to Chouard's equation must be either parabola-like - which the Eiffel Tower is not - or "explode to infinity" at the top of the tower. In terms of known mathematical functions, Weidman found one solution - a downward facing parabola, but it has the wrong curvature for the legendary structure.Īfter giving a talk at Michigan Technological University in 2003, Weidman was introduced to Professor Iosif Pinelis, an expert in mathematical analysis, who offered his help in understanding the underlying features of the integral equation. The equation was created by French Eiffel Tower aficionado Christophe Chouard, who posted it on his Web site and challenged engineers and mathematicians worldwide to find its solution, said Weidman. The book's cover contains photographs of various stages of the Eiffel Tower's construction, and the book's preface contains a non-nonlinear integral equation - a formula with a number of possible solutions - for the tower's shape. Weidman began researching the problem when he received a second edition copy of the textbook, "Advanced Engineering Mathematics," in 2001. "He built it section by section, and did not have an equation for its description," said Weidman.īut the spectacular tower, completed in 1889 and which remains one of the most romantic and recognizable structures in the world, has long been believed to be explainable using a mathematical equation, albeit a very complex one. ![]() Instead, Eiffel's engineers used graphical results to calculate the strength needed to support its tremendous weight, as well as empirical evidence to account for the effects of wind. Weidman said the Eiffel Tower was not designed according to a single, overarching mathematical formula. ![]() "Although he was astoundingly bright, he was forced to rely on practical experience rather than mathematical calculations to estimate the effects of wind forces on structures." "Eiffel was worried about the wind throughout his building career," said Weidman of the CU-Boulder mechanical engineering department. But such a tower, never having been successfully erected, raised a chronic concern of Eiffel that he expressed frequently in his communications.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |