Tension may mean: In physics, tension is a force on a body directed to produce strain (extension); it can be considered to be negative compression. It is measured in according units (newton, dynes, pounds-force, etc). Tension is the dominant static force acting on such objects as a vibrating string or a stretched rubber band. Hooke's law states the relation between the stress on an object and the resultant increase in its length. The modulus of elasticity of a spring or elastic string can be use ...

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Including:

• Tensegrity - Principles
• Tensegrity - The human organism
• Tensegrity - Larger structures

Read more here: » Tensegrity: Encyclopedia - Tensegrity

Tensegrity is the pattern that results when push and pull have a win-win relationship with each other. The pull is continuous and the push is discontinuous. The continuous pull is balanced by the discontinuous push producing an integrity of tension and compression. Buckminster Fuller explained that these fundamental phenomena were not opposites, but complements that could always be found together. Tensegrity is the name for a synergy between a co-existing pairs of fundamental physical laws; of push and pull, and compression ...

See also:

Tensegrity, Tensegrity - Principles, Tensegrity - The human organism, Tensegrity - Larger structures

Read more here: » Tensegrity: Encyclopedia II - Tensegrity - Principles

An arch is a curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight (e.g. a doorway in a stone wall). The arch was developed in Mesopotamia, Assyria, Egypt and Etruria. It was later refined in Ancient Rome. The arch became an important technique in cathedral building and is still used today in some modern structures as for example in bridges. Arch - Technical aspects. The arch is significant because, in theory at least, it provides a structure which eliminates tensile stresses in s ...

Including:

• Arch - Technical aspects
• Arch - Construction
• Arch - History
• Arch - Other types

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In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure consisting of straight slender members inter-connected at joints into triangular units. Truss - History. The earliest trusses were made out of timber. The Greeks used truss construction for their dewllings. In 1570, Andrea Palladio published I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura, which contained instructions for wooden trusses bridges. Truss bridge, Lattice bridge, utilizing a truss form that allows the use ...

Including:

• Truss - History
• Truss - Statics of trusses
• Truss - Vierendeel truss
• Truss - Analysis of trusses
• Truss - Forces in members
• Truss - Design of members
• Truss - Design of joints

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Stucco is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water which consistency when wet and when dry becomes hard. Also used in sidings, it is used as a coating for walls and ceilings or for decoration. In Europe the term render is more commonly used. Stucco may be used to cover less visually appealing construction materials such as concrete blocks, steel, or adobe. The difference in nomenclature between stucco, plaster, and mortar is based more on use than composition. Until the later part of the nineteenth century, it was c ...

Including:

• Stucco - External Links

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Building material is any material which is used for a construction purpose. Just about every type of available material has been used at one time or another for creating various human and animal homes, structures, and technologies. This reference deals with habitat structures including homes. For other kinds of building materials, see Hardware, Biology, Star formation. Building material - Human building materials. Living spaces and their related structures have been created using myriad materials, fr ...

Including:

• Building material - Human building materials
• Building material - Mud stone and brush
• Building material - Wood
• Building material - Brick
• Building material - Concrete
• Building material - Ice
• Building material - Metal
• Building material - Plastic
• Building material - New materials and techniques

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Bauhaus is the common term for the Staatliches Bauhaus, an art and architecture school in Germany that operated from 1919 to 1933, and for the approach to design that it developed and taught. The most natural meaning for its name (related to the German verb for "build") is Architecture House. Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture. Bauhaus - History. The Bauhaus art school existed in three different cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 ...

Including:

• Bauhaus - History
• Bauhaus - Architectural output
• Bauhaus - Impact

Read more here: » Bauhaus: Encyclopedia - Bauhaus

A cell wall is a more or less solid layer surrounding a cell. They are found in bacteria, archaea, fungi, plants, and algae. Animals and most other protists have cell membranes without surrounding cell walls. When a cell wall is removed using cell wall degrading enzymes, what is left of the cell and its surrounding plasma membrane is called a protoplast. The cell walls main purpose is to actually protect the interior from any physical movement that may damage the cell.. Cell wall - Plant cell walls. Plant c ...

Including:

• Cell wall - Plant cell walls
• Cell wall - Composition of plant cell walls
• Cell wall - Algal cell walls
• Cell wall - Diatom cell walls
• Cell wall - Prokaryotic cell walls
• Cell wall - Fungal cell walls
• Cell wall - Pictures

Read more here: » Cell wall: Encyclopedia - Cell wall

In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes. Most civil engineering today deals with roads, structures, water supply, sewer, flood control and traffic. In essence civil engineering is the profession which makes the world a more habitable place to live. Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed system ...

Including:

• Civil engineering - Sub-disciplines of civil engineering
• Civil engineering - General civil engineering
• Civil engineering - Structural engineering
• Civil engineering - Geotechnical engineering
• Civil engineering - Transportation engineering
• Civil engineering - Environmental engineering
• Civil engineering - Hydraulic engineering
• Civil engineering - Construction engineering
• Civil engineering - Material science
• Civil engineering - Surveying
• Civil engineering - Careers
• Civil engineering - Education and Licensure

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The materials definition of a glass is a uniform amorphous solid material, usually produced when a suitably viscous molten material cools very rapidly to below its glass transition temperature, thereby not giving enough time for a regular crystal lattice to form. A simple example is when table sugar is melted and cooled rapidly by dumping the liquid sugar onto a cold surface. The resulting solid is amorphous, not crystalline like the sugar was originally, w ...

Including:

• Glass - Properties and Uses
• Glass - Glass Ingredients
• Glass - Glass as a polymer
• Glass - Colors
• Glass - History of glass
• Glass - Glass tools
• Glass - Glass art
• Glass - Architectural glass
• Glass - Float annealed glass
• Glass - Sheet glass
• Glass - Plate glass
• Glass - Cylinder glass
• Glass - Insulated glazing
• Glass - Toughened glass
• Glass - Laminated glass
• Glass - Low-emissivity glass
• Glass - Self-cleaning glass
• Glass - Evacuated glazing
• Glass - Glass as a liquid
• Glass - Evidence against glass flow

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Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American visionary, designer, architect, and inventor. Throughout his life, Fuller was concerned with the question of whether humanity has a chance to survive lastingly and successfully on planet Earth, and if so, how. Considering himself an average individual without special monetary means or academic degree, he chose to devote his life to this question, trying to find out what an individual like him could do to improve humanity's condition that large organizations, gov ...

Including:

• Buckminster Fuller - Major design projects
• Buckminster Fuller - Practical achievements
• Buckminster Fuller - Philosophy and worldview
• Buckminster Fuller - Biography
• Buckminster Fuller - Death
• Buckminster Fuller - Trivia
• Buckminster Fuller - Neologisms
• Buckminster Fuller - Concepts and buildings
• Buckminster Fuller - Literature
• Buckminster Fuller - Secondary literature
• Buckminster Fuller - Former students

Read more here: » Buckminster Fuller: Encyclopedia - Buckminster Fuller

Prior to 1902, the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world was only six stories high. Since concrete possesses very low tensile (pulling) strength, many people from both the public and the engineering community believed that a concrete tower as tall as the plan for the Ingalls Building would collapse under wind loads or even its own weight. When the building was completed and the supports removed, one reporter allegedly stayed awake through the night in ...

See also:

Ingalls Building, Ingalls Building - Overcoming skepticism, Ingalls Building - Construction, Ingalls Building - Landmark status

Read more here: » Ingalls Building: Encyclopedia II - Ingalls Building - Overcoming skepticism

The arch is significant because, in theory at least, it provides a structure which eliminates tensile stresses in spanning an open space. All the forces are resolved into compressive stresses. This is useful because several of the available building materials such as stone, cast iron and concrete can strongly resist compression but are very weak when tension, shear or torsional stress is applied to them. By using the arch configuration, significant spans can be achieved. This same principle holds when the force acting on the arch is not vertical such as in spanning a doorway, but horizontal, ...

See also:

Arch, Arch - Technical aspects, Arch - Construction, Arch - History, Arch - Other types

Read more here: » Arch: Encyclopedia II - Arch - Technical aspects

Arches were used by the Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Assyrian civilizations for underground structures such as drains and vaults, but the ancient Romans were the first to use them widely above ground although it is thought that Romans learned it from the Etruscans. The so-called Roman arch is semicircular, and built from an odd number of arch bricks (in modern architectural parlance, these are called voussoirs). The capstone or keystone is the topmost stone in the arch. This shape is the simplest to build, but not the ...

See also:

Arch, Arch - Technical aspects, Arch - Construction, Arch - History, Arch - Other types

Read more here: » Arch: Encyclopedia II - Arch - History

In order for a truss with pin-connected members to be rigid, it must be composed entirely of triangles. In mathematical terms, we have the following necessary condition for stability: where m is the total number of truss members and j is the total number of joints. When m = 2j − 3, the truss is said to be statically determinate because the (m+3) internal member forces and support reactions can then be completely determined by 2j ...

See also:

Truss, Truss - History, Truss - Statics of trusses, Truss - Vierendeel truss, Truss - Analysis of trusses, Truss - Forces in members, Truss - Design of members, Truss - Design of joints

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Hooper designed a monolithic "concrete box of eight-inch [200 mm] walls, with concrete floors and roof, concrete beams, concrete columns, concrete stairs -- no steel. It consists merely of bars embedded in concrete, with the ends interlaced." (Ali) The amount of concrete produced during construction -- 100 cubic yards (76 m³) in each ten-hour shift -- was limited by the rate at which the builders could place it. An extra wet mix was used to insure complete contact with the rebars and uniform density in the columns. Floor slabs were p ...

See also:

Ingalls Building, Ingalls Building - Overcoming skepticism, Ingalls Building - Construction, Ingalls Building - Landmark status

Read more here: » Ingalls Building: Encyclopedia II - Ingalls Building - Construction

The analysis assumes that loads are applied to joints only, not to the members. The estimated weights of bars are either omitted or, if required, they are applied to the joints (a half of the weight to each of the bar joints). As long as loads are applied only at the joints of a truss, and the joints act like "hinges", every member of the truss is in pure compression or pure tension -- shear, bending moments, and other more complex stresses are all practically zero. This makes trusses easier to analyze. This also makes trusses physically str ...

See also:

Truss, Truss - History, Truss - Statics of trusses, Truss - Vierendeel truss, Truss - Analysis of trusses, Truss - Forces in members, Truss - Design of members, Truss - Design of joints

Read more here: » Truss: Encyclopedia II - Truss - Analysis of trusses

Plant cell walls have a number of functions: they provide rigidity to the cell for structural and mechanical support, maintaining cell shape, the direction of cell growth and ultimately the architecture of the plant. The cell wall also prevents expansion when water enters the cell. The term turgor is used to describe this pressure that is induced by excess water inside the plant cell. Cell walls protect against pathogens and the environment and are a store of carbohydrates for the plant. The cell wall is constructed primarily ...

See also:

Cell wall, Cell wall - Plant cell walls, Cell wall - Composition of plant cell walls, Cell wall - Algal cell walls, Cell wall - Diatom cell walls, Cell wall - Prokaryotic cell walls, Cell wall - Fungal cell walls, Cell wall - Pictures

Read more here: » Cell wall: Encyclopedia II - Cell wall - Plant cell walls

The original Pantheon was built in 27 BC-25 BC under the Roman Empire, during the third consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and his name is inscribed on the portico of the building. The inscription reads M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIUM·FECIT, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the third time, built this." It was originally built with adjoining baths and water gardens. In fact, Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed by fire in AD 80, and the Pantheon was completely rebuilt in about 125, during the reign of the Empe ...

See also:

Pantheon Rome, Pantheon Rome - History, Pantheon Rome - Structure

Read more here: » Pantheon Rome: Encyclopedia II - Pantheon Rome - History