BEHOLD THE EIFFEL TOWER

LEGO® BRICKS AND THE EIFFEL TOWER!

Please Explore!

"I should be jealous of the tower. It is much more famous than I am."
Eiffel

It all started with Garrett. He is an older PCS student and a simple "chinese pagoda roof" would not have presented much challenge. So....upon reading Mario Salvadori's Why Buildings Stand Up and several other sources I asked Garrett to build "The Eiffel Tower."

We have had students build Eiffel Towers before, but never with this degree of realism. I challenged Garrett to build four pylons and the first platform to scale ( as much as possible ). He also had to incorporate "creeping cranes" much as had been done in 1887.

Eiffel had several substantial problems to face when building the tower:

	Wind forces acting on the structure
	The huge four inclined buttresses had to be temporarily supported somehow
	How to maintain accuracy between the buttresses and where they met with the first platform( if the incline of a buttress was off by one tenth of a degree, the rivet holes would be off by five inches! )
	How to lift the steel beams and columns to their final destinations
	How to bring the estimated 10,000 daily visitors to the three platforms

Borrowed from Mario Salvadori. Buy his book!

Garrett and I spent some time discussing these problems and their solutions ( they were overcome as the tower stands tribute ). Eiffel's problems served as an excellent springboard for exploring architecture.

Garrett's initial attempts were relatively unsuccessful. He wanted his model to be as realistic as possible, but building it straight up was not going to cut it! After several serious attempts to build the buttresses he screamed "AAARGH." ( Really he did! ) Then we took a long look at Euclid's Cube That wacky Greek guy, he was good with cubes! This provided a new starting point for the tower project!

LET'S LOOK SHALL WE?

	*The base and first platform started*
	*A top view*
	*A view of a buttress*
	*Another view of a buttress*
	*Yet another view of a buttress*
	*Garrett Hard at Work*
	*Look Now!*
	*Getting Taller!*
	*Using the Book!*
	*Up Up and Up!*
	*Looking Down!*
	*Hit of the Engineering Lab!*

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE EIFFEL TOWER

Okay, I challenge you folk out there in Web Land to build your own Eiffel Towers! It makes an engaging lesson for either individual or groups of students (or teachers even!).

...And the final product!

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