12/8/2023 0 Comments St louis arch dimensions![]() NEARY: We've been told that the Gateway Arch in St. DEVLIN: We don't even know how to pronounce the word, let alone write down the equation. NEARY: This is all way too highbrow for me. Is it a parabola? Or is it, as we subsequently found out, a catenary, or a catenary? And it was an interesting question of mathematical physics in the 17th century: what exactly is the curve you get when you hang a chain between two points. It is the Latin word, comes from the Latin word for chain. DEVLIN: Well, I understand that catenary or catenary is actually from a Latin word, not a Greek word - although, I may stand to be corrected. NEARY: You know, I was about to make that point before we get any more mail on this question. If you take a parabola and you roll it along a straight line, then the focus of the parabola, which is like the equivalent of the center of a circle, the focus of a parabola will trace out a catenary, or a catenary - depends whether you're British or American as to how you pronounce it, I think. There is a connection, a rather interesting connection between a parabola and a catenary. But it's actually quite a complicated curve.Īnd in fact, it's not just that people confuse the two. And Scott has maybe forgotten his calculus already, so he wasn't able to do it either. ![]() Galileo was too soon calculus hadn't been invented then. In fact, you need to use calculus in order to figure out the equation of a catenary. A catenary is a much more complicated equation. The parabola, as any high school student should know, and I hope does know, you get a parabola if you take the equation y2=ax2a, is a constant. In fact, it took quite a long time to find out what the equation was of a catenary. DEVLIN: They look alike to the naked eye. But I assume it's easy to make it because they look alike. NEARY: Well, I'm sure that I would not have made the same mistake that Scott Simon made or that Galileo made. It's indeed one of these curves called a catenary. However, about 20 or 30 years later, it was shown that it's not a parabola. He looked at it, he thought, yeah - like Scott did - he thought, that looks like a parabola, and Galileo thought it was a parabola. Louis arch.īack in the 17th century, Galileo was thinking about what shape you'd get if you hung a chain between two points. ![]() That means if you turn it upside down, it's the most efficient shape if you want to make a large stone arch like the St. It's the shape the chain will take when it sags down due to gravity. It's the shape you get if you take a chain, a long, thin chain, and you hold it out between your two hands or between to posts and let it sag in the middle. I mean Galileo wasn't talking about the St. No less a person than the great Galileo, the founder of modern science, made essentially the same mistake back in the 17th century. Well, first I should say that Scott is not alone in making that mistake. Now, can you explain the difference for us? NEARY: So the Gateway Arch is not a parabola but a catenary curve. Professor KEITH DEVLIN (Stanford University): Hi, Lynn. Well, we took him up on that challenge and invited the Math Guy to join us this morning. Robert Osserman(ph) wrote from Berkeley, California: I'm sure the Math Guy will be able to straighten you out on why the gateway is not a parabola, as stated by Scott Simon, but a catenary. NEARY: Well, it turns out that the Gateway Arch is not a parabola. On this date in 1965, workers topped out the final section of the Gateway Arch in St. He's all Greek too.Īnd we're still trying to dig out of the piles of mail that came in when Scott Simon said this last week. Scott suggested that the term was Latin, but Demosanese Cazanes(ph) in Severna Park, Maryland wrote, anthropodermic is a Greek and not a Latin word, as suggested by Scott. Curtis's book on the crime was bound in the murderer's own skin. ![]() The crime was a sensation in Great Britain, every lurid detail reported by a journalist, James Curtis. Last week Scott Simon talked with Professor Paul Collins about the mysterious murder of Maria Martin in 1828. A couple of corrections have come our way.
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