In action: a skyscraper’s amazing 728-ton stabilising ball

deputy-dog ^ | 6/22/08

[LibWhacker]

The enormous steel ball you see in the photos (and the incredible video below) is the world’s largest ‘tuned mass damper’ and sits near the top of the world’s largest completed skyscraper on earth, taipei 101 in taiwan. the idea behind a tuned mass damper is quite simple: as a building sways (resulting from high winds, earthquakes etc), its tuned mass damper, essentially a finely tuned and ridiculously heavy pendulum, will move in opposition to the structure’s oscillations and minimise any movement. if that makes no sense, watch the crude gif below.

due to both the immense size of taipei 101 and the fact that it sits just over 600ft from a major fault line, engineers had no choice but to install one of this size at a cost of $4m. too heavy to be lifted by crane, the damper was assembled on site and hangs through 4 floors of the skyscraper. it can reduce the building’s movement by up to 40%.

image sources: 1, 2, 3 image source: wikipedia

now for an incredible video. on may 12th, as the horrendous earthquake occurred in china’s sichuan province, tremors were felt for miles, including in taipei 101. youtube user phuaalvin was in the building at the time and said that as the building started to shake, dozens of people ran to the damper to watch it in action. here’s the video he took… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYSgd1XSZXc"/

[Doctor Raoul]

Next, The World’s Largest Matza Ball...

[Rebelbase]

“Acmhed, all we need to do is blow the supports and ball will come tumbling down!”

[umgud]

Whip it!

[IrishCatholic]

It’s why we don’t have earthquakes in Kansas. I hear we have the world’s largest ball of twine.

[Chuck54]

bttt

[tet68]

Sure looks like the spot to aim an airliner for.
melt the cables, drop the 728 ton ball into the basement
followed by flaming jet fuel.....

[FastCoyote]

Pretty cool, but why make it as a sphere and not a cylinder?

[VOA]

A 728-ton ball falling (at least) 87 stories...
sounds like a nice kinetic-energy weapon for Jihadis.

[bert]

A sphere gives the largest unit mass per unit volume

[Past Your Eyes]

I could have sworn that was in Minnesota. At least that’s what Weird Al sang about.

[bert]

“Ball of Twine”

So, we can’t say people from Kansas have no balls

[FReepaholic]

...Whip it!...

LOL! That's the first thing I thought of too. I'm betting not too many people get that connection.

[AnAmericanMother]

Neat!

This interesting little book explains the physics involved for the layman:

[gitmo]

Is that correct? I’m not a physicist, but it seems to me that an ounce of lead will take up the same volume regardless of its shape. Wasn’t that what Archimedes did his streaking routine about?

[F15Eagle]

Very cool. I’d hate to live in the spaces just below it though. Just in case it *ever* got loose.

[G8 Diplomat]

the world’s largest completed skyscraper on earth, taipei 101 in taiwan.

The Burj Dubai overtook Taipei 101 last July...and it's not finished yet.

[bert]

Yes but the sphere has the smallest surface area for the volume

You are correct a cc of lead is a cc of lead.

[F15Eagle]

I imagine because a sphere centers the mass most efficiently. The distances, for all intents and purposes, since it’s not a perfect sphere admittedly, are essentially equidistant from the center.

[Fido969]

as the building started to shake, dozens of people ran to the damper to watch it in action

Amazing.

[Gay State Conservative]

Saw something about this on the tube recently.Erecting a building that tall in an area that experiences such devastating earthquakes and typhoons sounds pretty crazy to me.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

[garyhope]

And of course, the opposite:

Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture (Paperback)
by Mario Salvadori (Author)

There might be another book that I bought a while ago on the same kind of things called “Why buildings DONT fall down” I can’t remember the exact title.

I bought it because I din’t understand why they DIDN’T fall down.

After having been through 2 major earthquakes when I lived in California, I don’t trust much of anything structurally.

I know that if we have a big one here in Texas, a lot of freeways and overpasses standing on spindly little one legged suppports are going to hit the dirt.

[2harddrive]

Let’s HOPE and PRAY that terrorist’s don’t cut the cable supporting that enormous weight, letting it crash through floor after floor, till it finally stopped somewhere in the basement! It might be worse that 9/11!

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

It’s Devolution in action!

[raybbr]

It looks like it's sitting on supports probably filled with gas. I don't think it could just fall. It also helps explain my first thought; how are they going to change the cables when they rust?

[TigersEye]

Punk rock is prohibited in the vicinity of the damper.

[umgud]

LOL! That's the first thing I thought of too. I'm betting not too many people get that connection.

You're dating yourself.

[garyhope]

Excuse my scaredy cat wussiness, but if I’m going to be that high off of the ground, I want to be in an airplane.

[gitmo]

I’ll agree with surface area, but not volume. Thanks.

[TigersEye]

Devo is prohibited too. But I think that’s a China-wide ban not just this building. ;^)

[sam_paine]

OK. Help the slow. i don’t get the devo connection?

[FReepaholic]

[FReepaholic]

See #33.

[Born to Conserve]

“A sphere gives the largest unit mass per unit volume”

So the shape changes the density of the material? Amazing.

[Rebelbase]

“A sphere gives the largest unit mass per unit volume”

The theory behind the Kramerica oil sphere.

[No Truce With Kings]

Wonder what the natural frequency is . . . and if you pump it in, what happens, ball or no.

[Mike Fieschko]

[sam_paine]

Well duh on me. The picture of the stacked sphere hadn’t loaded yet or I’da figured that one out!

[TigersEye]

"Whip it. Whip it into shape. Not!

[Quix]

Crazy?

Ego, pride, arrogance, one-ups-man-ship . . .

Chinese culture is rife with such . . . as is American culture.

Then there’s the globalist puppet masters . . . . arrogant enough to plan the deaths of all but 200 million global citizens.

Yeah, pride is always crazy . . . eventually.

[Quix]

The Chinese CAN be very good about security.

[TigersEye]

Ego, pride, arrogance, one-ups-man-ship . . . Chinese culture is rife with such . . . as is American culture.

I think the Chinese have us beat. They're just getting warmed up though and we've been playing encores for decades now.

[Quix]

There is that, alright.

I certainly think they will excel at ostentatiousness.

They can flaunt it like no one I've ever seen.

[AnAmericanMother]

That was the sequel.

Because the first book actually talks a lot about the failure points that caused famous things to fall down -- it also points out how to remedy them. It covers "Galloping Gertie" (and other bridge collapses), the Empire State Building plane incident, the KC skywalk collapse, and other less known incidents. The Nimitz Freeway collapse was discussed in detail.

If there's a big one in TX, it'll come off the New Madrid fault and it will hit here before it hits there -- and we won't be here to talk about it!

[umgud]

Whip It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbt30UnzRWw

[TigersEye]

They can flaunt it like no one I've ever seen.

Shake it, China Baby!

Oops! I guess I shouldn't have said that on this thread.

[ALASKA]

I now better understand the male anatomy...............two has to be better than one.....

[Quix]

lol.

[Red_Devil 232]

how are they going to change the cables when they rust? Stainless Steel