Ode to Fat Kids!

Okay, okay, okay...I know that it has been a while since my last post, and I appear to have left you hanging. How was I to know that there would be such interest? I honestly figured that the only people who would care to know the answers to my Structures 101 quiz would be those who had taken such a class with me and therefore would already know the answers. (That is, all two of the CALA alums who read this...and one of those may be me! Though I believe that the comments from Mike are actually from a one-time architecture student.) Shame on me for underestimating the inquisitiveness of PDaddy and the ability of Mike to find me through an internet version of six degrees of separation. Well, I would love to give you the answers, but it looks like PDaddy has already given it! (If you missed his comment, PDaddy provided a link with explanatory photos that are much better than mine!)

The two structures are CANTILEVERS, which work like kids on a seesaw. If you move the fulcrum (the pivot point on the seesaw) off of center, then you need a fatter kid on the short side of the seesaw due to increased moment (or as Mike guessed with helium...a skinnier kid on the long side). In the case of the tram stop, the fulcrum (the mirrored columns which actually carry the entire weight of the structure...impressive at 8"x24") is FAR off center; leaving 90' floating without support on one side with only 30' on the other. Instead of sitting the 'fat kid' on top of the seesaw, he has been buried underground in the form of a large concrete foundation and tied to the short end of the seesaw with the curlycues that PDaddy noticed. (Though I believe that the straight steel piece is carrying all of the load and the curlycue is merely a narritive device to show the spring-like tension that is occurring there.) As for the steel and glass bars on the interior, the glass ones are indeed lights (which turn the tram stop into AMAZING glowing lanterns at night!) with no structural purpose, while the steel bars compensate for the lack of a bottom plane on the boxes by linking the sides of the boxes, providing lateral support and preventing torsion. WOohOo! Wasn't that a fun lesson?!?!

Well since structures was SUCH an INTERESTING TOPIC and I need to play catch-up with Alicante events, we'll continue your collective structural education!

Early on in the game we were already impressed with ourselves! (José Chilón on the left)

There it is! The second most impressive structure that I have seen in Alicante! It was a temporary installation that was erected for less than an hour in the living room of our Alicante BFFs José y Cecilia two weeks ago. Yes, these are the same two who shared an evening of Chinese food with us, and it turns out that we did not completely scare them off on said evening! The next week we were invited for a DELICIOUS and authentic Peruvian lunch prepared by José in their piso. If you were impressed by our performance with them before, get ready for utter amazement: 8 hours of hanging out at their place! We came early at noon to hang out as they cooked, ate a delicious plate of chicken and potatoes in a bread-thickened sauce of mild-chiles, enjoyed an Argentian dessert (they are always feeding me new varieties of Argentinian cookies and snacks at work), and passed away the afternoon and evening with conversation in Castellano and several games of Jenga.

Cecilia continues the work on our Babel-inspired creation!

The crowning achievement of the night was not even the great time we had and our self-satisfaction in our spanish conversation abilities, but the most amazing Jenga tower that has been or ever will be! This was our final game of the evening which ended in structural failure (as do all games of Jenga) caused by a combination of slenderness-ratio, excessive lateral loads and my wife.

I'll do my best to get back in the blogging groove, but work has been quite busy lately. We finished our housing projects competition and the boss gets back from Boston tomorrow. I only have internet at work, and am usually wanted at home when the work day is over at 9pm....this leaves literally no useful time for blogging. Unfortunately for you, living the Spanish life is much more enjoyable than writing about it, though I have many more semi-exciting stories to relate (some of which you have not already heard about from the more reliable Alicante blog). And I will hopefully have more to come. This week will not be a great one for updates due to the upcoming adventures of the Swiss-Family-Sanderson. But Wifey's description of our UN-style Thanksgiving Extravaganza should hold you for a while!