A good book.

It is! A good companion book is, Levy, Matthys and Salvadori, Mario,
WHY BUILDINGS FALL DOWN, W.W. Norton and Company, NY, 1992, [$24.95].

...and the quote related to one selected by Tsuchiya's is, ...
"Suspension bridges, the longest in the world, shold not be classified
as pure tensile structures because although their main elements, the
cables, the suspenders connecting the roadway to the cables, and the
inclined stays connecting it to the towers act in tension, the towers
work incompression, and the roadway is stabilized by bending trusses,
needed to counteract the instability of the cables." [There example
is the George Washington Bridge, NY.]

Although emphasizing structure, these books fully discuss one of the
significant themes in the arts and architecture. The latter book will
give the reader many good laughs.

- - The original note follows - -

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From: tsuchiya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (N John Tsuchiya)
Newsgroups: alt.architecture
Subject: A good book.
Date: 12 Sep 1993 03:53:43 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Here is an interesting fact which would seem like a paradox to most
people (a magic trick, if you will...):

In a large tensile structure (such as a bridge),
if you increase the tensile strength of the
material that the sturcture is made of,
you will WEAKEN the total strength of the structure!

Well, if that inspires your curiosity, read J.E. Gordon's _Structures:_Or_Why_
Things_Don't_Fall_Down_. It is an excellent book on structures for the lay
reader---no mathetical knowledge required.


N. John Tsuchiya
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