This learn node features a video called “The Arch Never Sleeps” in which professors explain the mechanics of the support arches provide for structures. One professor points out the limitations of laying a block of stone across two others. The professor whose foot is shown as he stands on an arch (that is not glued together) is demonstrating the strength of stone arches. The video is on a page from the Open University Mathematics and Statistics modeling problems open courseware.
If the concepts of arches and mechanical forces get curiosity strongly aroused, a popular online set of notes for the mathematics of mechanics can be found at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Included are algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytical geometry, calculus and vectors � as each of them relates to mechanics. Or for more concrete contemplations of arches mathematics and more, there is a page titled Geometry of Bridge Construction by a Jesuit teacher of math. That site includes a quick explanation of the famed seven Bridges of Konigsberg problem and Euler’s solution that provides a key basis for understanding how the connectivity of the Internet makes it possible for learn nodes to form the webs from which ideas can emerge. Related in time and math concepts are the Medieval breakthroughs in math visible in mosaics from Islamic buildings.
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