5 ms·

Engineers put Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design to the test

134 points by fraqed 7y ago

degenerate 7y ago
"RELATED VIDEOS: Thinkware Q800 Pro Dash Cam Captures Accident" Yes, very related, Popular Mechanics. Keep pushing "video views" so the marketing team can show the executive team how great their engagement numbers are. It would have been neat to see more pictures of... the bridge.
- wtvanhest 7y ago
  Normally, I'd downvote, but that was egregious. Forces the video to play in browser while reading the article without any intent to watch anything at all, let alone their completely unrelated video.
- notelonmusk 7y ago
  "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." "We can’t measure what counts, so we count what we can measure."
- dang 7y ago
  Ok, let's use the MIT press release instead. URL changed from https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a29426711/da-vinci-bridge/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a....
  - vertis 7y ago
    It's almost worth building the ability to submit additional sources of the same story and being able to vote them up till they become the main link
    - dang 7y ago
      Who would identify which submissions are the same story?
      - vertis 7y ago
        I think it's just done by voting, anyone could submit an alternative link, but it would need X upvotes to be promoted to the primary link. I can see how this might not work so well with contentious stories, but when it's just linking to the primary source vs a poorly written article on a secondary source it might improve the experience. This is also true when something is paywalled but there are alternative versions. Edit: In my mind it's an additional facet, rather than just being done in comments. Maybe it's not even visible unless you're a high karma individual.
        dang 7y ago
        Yes, this is close to the various scribbles in my head on this topic, which hopefully we can turn into working software one day.
- gherkinnn 7y ago
  Damn, that’s one useless website. Dozens of seconds pass and it still bounces about like a camel on crack. With all these KPIs people like optimising for, can’t a low rage quit rate be one too?
spydum 7y ago
better link from the mit folks working on project: http://news.mit.edu/2019/leonardo-da-vinci-bridge-test-1010 http://news.mit.edu/2019/leonardo-da-vinci-bridge-test-1010 sure, bridge may have worked, but did they actually have the capability to build it? suppose it's not very different than other arches?
- mjevans 7y ago
  Based on the description in the article: probably. I at least believe it is plausible, though I'm not sure of the economics relating to if it would have been a good expenditure of resources. I also get the feeling that this might be a "CompSci" style answer: the customer asked for X and Xn was proposed. In reality the customer's needs were actually Y0..Yn which would have been better served by Z. This doesn't change the fact that Xn is a good answer to the problem of X, it just wasn't really what the customer actually required.
  - marcosdumay 7y ago
    Activating the civil construction mode of failures, I'd say that he probably sent the design for construction, but the people on the field didn't think it would work and built it like every other bridge they have built on their lives.
    - jandrese 7y ago
      Or it's a fantastic bridge once fully assembled, but every piece is some special snowflake shape and has to be fitted precisely so it would be much harder to build than a traditional bridge.
      - ummonk 7y ago
        Yup, there is no word on the tolerances that would have been required (especially when using realistic sized stone blocks, rather than 126 large blocks as done in the experiment).
noir_lord 7y ago
It’s a really beautiful design as well, I wonder if the beauty of well designed things is because we see they are well designed or intrinsic.
ChoGGi 7y ago
I think that was proved 18 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Pro...
- unsignedchar 7y ago
  The article mentions the Norway bridge. But says it was ‘inspired’, whereas this one is a 1:500 scale model of the original design
  - steve19 7y ago
    The Norway bridge was also wood while the MIT students argued it was intended to be stone.

134 points by fraqed 7y ago

"RELATED VIDEOS: Thinkware Q800 Pro Dash Cam Captures Accident" Yes, very related, Popular Mechanics. Keep pushing "video views" so the marketing team can show the executive team how great their engagement numbers are. It would have been neat to see more pictures of... the bridge.

wtvanhest 7y ago
Normally, I'd downvote, but that was egregious. Forces the video to play in browser while reading the article without any intent to watch anything at all, let alone their completely unrelated video.
notelonmusk 7y ago
"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." "We can’t measure what counts, so we count what we can measure."
dang 7y ago
Ok, let's use the MIT press release instead. URL changed from https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a29426711/da-vinci-bridge/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a....
- vertis 7y ago
  It's almost worth building the ability to submit additional sources of the same story and being able to vote them up till they become the main link
  - dang 7y ago
    Who would identify which submissions are the same story?
    - vertis 7y ago
      I think it's just done by voting, anyone could submit an alternative link, but it would need X upvotes to be promoted to the primary link. I can see how this might not work so well with contentious stories, but when it's just linking to the primary source vs a poorly written article on a secondary source it might improve the experience. This is also true when something is paywalled but there are alternative versions. Edit: In my mind it's an additional facet, rather than just being done in comments. Maybe it's not even visible unless you're a high karma individual.
      - dang 7y ago
        Yes, this is close to the various scribbles in my head on this topic, which hopefully we can turn into working software one day.
gherkinnn 7y ago
Damn, that’s one useless website. Dozens of seconds pass and it still bounces about like a camel on crack. With all these KPIs people like optimising for, can’t a low rage quit rate be one too?

spydum 7y ago

better link from the mit folks working on project: http://news.mit.edu/2019/leonardo-da-vinci-bridge-test-1010 http://news.mit.edu/2019/leonardo-da-vinci-bridge-test-1010 sure, bridge may have worked, but did they actually have the capability to build it? suppose it's not very different than other arches?

mjevans 7y ago
Based on the description in the article: probably. I at least believe it is plausible, though I'm not sure of the economics relating to if it would have been a good expenditure of resources. I also get the feeling that this might be a "CompSci" style answer: the customer asked for X and Xn was proposed. In reality the customer's needs were actually Y0..Yn which would have been better served by Z. This doesn't change the fact that Xn is a good answer to the problem of X, it just wasn't really what the customer actually required.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  Activating the civil construction mode of failures, I'd say that he probably sent the design for construction, but the people on the field didn't think it would work and built it like every other bridge they have built on their lives.
  - jandrese 7y ago
    Or it's a fantastic bridge once fully assembled, but every piece is some special snowflake shape and has to be fitted precisely so it would be much harder to build than a traditional bridge.
    - ummonk 7y ago
      Yup, there is no word on the tolerances that would have been required (especially when using realistic sized stone blocks, rather than 126 large blocks as done in the experiment).

noir_lord 7y ago

It’s a really beautiful design as well, I wonder if the beauty of well designed things is because we see they are well designed or intrinsic.

ChoGGi 7y ago

I think that was proved 18 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Pro...

unsignedchar 7y ago
The article mentions the Norway bridge. But says it was ‘inspired’, whereas this one is a 1:500 scale model of the original design
- steve19 7y ago
  The Norway bridge was also wood while the MIT students argued it was intended to be stone.