Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity

Series: Great Courses

4.5

(22)

Episodes

Rating

TVPG

Year

2011

Language

English

Publisher

The Great Courses

About

Your world is filled with structures that have stood the test of time. Experience the engineering genius that makes these works possible. Travel around the world and hear the stories behind the most famous structures in history. This course will change the way you think about the buildings around you.

Related Subjects

Episodes

1. Learning to See and Understand Structure

30m

How are ideas for buildings, bridges, and towers transformed from sketches to concrete reality? What are the three essential qualities that make a structure great? What's the difference between seeing a structure and actually understanding it? Discover the answers to these and other questions in this introductory episode.

2. The Science of Structure- Forces in Balance

30m

Explore how two types of external forces: loads (forces applied to structures) and reactions (forces developed at supports, in response to applied loads): act on structures such as Kansas City's Chouteau Bridge. Also, learn how these forces are related to the most important concept in engineering mechanics: equilibrium.

3. Internal Forces, Stress, and Strength

30m

Use the Simple Tension Test (pulling on a structural element until it reaches the breaking point) as a gateway to understanding the concepts of internal force, stress, and strength. Then, see these concepts at work in structures such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Athens' Olympic Velodrome.

4. From Wood to Steel- Properties of Materials

30m

Materials profoundly influence the form, function, and structure of great buildings, bridges, and towers. Using steel (which is superior in terms of strength, ductility, and stiffness) as a benchmark, compare the structural properties of wood, masonry, concrete, and iron: and see them at work in thousands of years' worth of structures.

5. Building Up- Columns and Buckling

30m

One of the most potent human aspirations supported by engineering is to build up. Learn how this has been done from antiquity to the present with columns: structural members that carry load primarily in compression. You'll also learn about buckling: the often catastrophic stability failure that occurs in columns with certain geometric characteristics.

6. Building Across- Beams and Bending

30m

Beams, combining tension and compression, are central to the second aspiration supported by engineering: building across long distances. As you survey beams from the primitive lintel over the Lion Gate at Mycenae to Norway's Raftsundet Bridge, you'll investigate scientific developments and transform your understanding of what makes this structural element possible.

7. Trusses- The Power of the Triangle

30m

Trusses, the subject of this fascinating episode, are rigid frameworks composed of structural members connected at joints and arranged into networks of triangles. Learn how they work to stabilize and support a range of structural wonders, including the Brooklyn Bridge and: most famously: the Eiffel Tower.

8. Cables and Arches- The Power of the Parabola

30m

In this episode, Professor Ressler introduces you to two final structural elements: cables and arches. The Saint Louis Gateway Arch and the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge are just two examples of breathtaking structural features that also have extensive, occasionally surprising, parallels.

9. Loads and Structural Systems

30m

Structures are heavily influenced by the loads they're designed to carry. First, take a closer look at the most important loads structures must resist, including traffic loads and earthquake loads. Then, using the historic iron building at Watervliet Arsenal in New York, analyze how loads are actually transmitted through structural systems along load paths.

10. Egypt and Greece- Pyramids to the Parthenon

30m

Embark on your tour of different types of structures from around the world and across time. Your first stop: ancient Egypt, and the surprisingly complex engineering of pyramids, including the Great and Red pyramids. Your second stop: ancient Greece, where you visit the domed Treasury of Atreus and break down the structural system of the Parthenon.

Extended Details

SeriesGreat Courses

Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

Stephen ResslerActor