Millau Viaduct, France (2004) designed by Norman Foster
transformations and tessellations: students can work on the 15 sites below until March 22nd while we explore unit 7
- translations, reflections, and rotations 1
- translations, reflections, and rotations 2
- battleship against a computer
- battleship against a partner
- rotate, reflect, & translate figures here:
- lines of symmetry
- symmetry creation
- symmetry mission
- raft race
- tessellation theory
- tessellation creator
- tessellation creator 2
- tessellations in art ⇒ who is M.C. Escher?
- tessellations in architecture British Museum, London
- tessellations in architecture Santiago Calatrava’s world trade centre hub
- the oculus time lapse video
angles and polygons
- angles
- how to use a protractor video
- estimating angles
- acute, right, and obtuse angles video
- interactive quadrilaterals
- polygon definition
- interactive polygons
- geometric solids and net creation
- polygon sort
- geoboard
triangles and bridges
- triangle explanation
- interactive triangles
- types of triangles
- bridges
- truss bridge designs
- millau viaduct foster + partners
- foster + partners projects worldwide
- millau viaduct video on design and construction
- understanding the Genoa bridge collapse NYT
- above the clouds, the French glimpse the old grandeur NYT
- We learned about Lord Norman Foster and the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, located in Millau, France. This bridge was the source of inspiration for our bridges. Our designs and pictures of our completed bridges in turn were sent to Foster + Partners in London, England for review by their own engineers. We learned that the Millau bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with multiple cables, unlike the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy which, lacking both robustness and redundant cables, catastrophically failed in the fall of 2018. The Morandi Bridge instead was supported by a single stay (cable) encased in concrete. This concrete encasement unfortunately prevented anyone from noticing any wear and tear in the cable itself. The single cable design, combined with the internal rotting of the cable over time by the salty sea air, contributed to the unforgiving collapse. The sad twist to this tragedy is that the cables on one set of stays were replaced entirely in the 1990s. The bridge section that was supported by these cables remained in tact on that fateful day. Puzzlingly, the second set of cable stays were not replaced at all. In the end, it is this second set that failed on August 14th, 2018. 43 people lost their lives.
