Tacoma Narrows bridge (was: MySQL v. PostgreSQL ...)
Ray Cote
rgacote at AppropriateSolutions.com
Tue Jul 31 16:23:29 EDT 2007
At 2:54 PM -0400 7/31/07, Jarod Wilson wrote:
>On Tuesday 31 July 2007 01:14:40 pm Ben Scott wrote:
>> On 7/31/07, Bill Sconce <sconce at in-spec-inc.com> wrote:
>> > (Bridges give us some EXCELLENT examples of
>> > what happens when an engineer goes a little bit amateur. You've probably
>> > seen a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge coming apart.)
>>
>> In fairness to the engineers behind the Tacoma Narrows bridge, I
>> haven't seen anything which suggested they didn't know what they were
>> doing. Everything I've seen stated that the resonance which built up
>> due to wind was unprecedented in the Civil Engineering world. It had
>> simply never been encountered or even considered before. According to
>> Wikipedia, the designer of the TN bridge, Leon Moisseiff, was also a
>> major contributor to the engineering of the Golden Gate Bridge. So
>> "Galloping Gertie" is not so much about amateurism, but unforeseen
>> consequences. Of course, most of us are familiar with *those*,
>> too....
>
>Ooh, ooh, everyone who's driven across the Tacoma Narrows bridge multiple
>times raise your hand!
The twin for the Tacoma Narrows bridge is not that far down the road,
in Deer Isle Maine.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Isle,_Maine>
"...bridge does bounce up and won on windy days..."
I'll say it does. Has an interesting sway to it as well.
--Ray
--
Raymond Cote
Appropriate Solutions, Inc.
PO Box 458 ~ Peterborough, NH 03458-0458
Phone: 603.924.6079 ~ Fax: 603.924.8668
rgacote(at)AppropriateSolutions.com
www.AppropriateSolutions.com
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