Holding It Up
The word for being squashed.
Compression
Two posts with a flat stone laid across the top.
Post & Lintel
A row of columns.
Colonnade
Steel is iron mixed with this.
Carbon
A steel beam shaped like a letter.
I-Beam
The word for being pulled apart.
Tension
This curved shape carries weight better than a flat stone.
Arch
A row of arches.
Arcade
Burning this gives us carbon.
Coal or charcoal
What shape are trusses made of?
Triangles
Grass and mud huts fell down because they were missing this.
A frame or a skeleton
The stone at the very center of an arch.
Keystone
Arches in a circle to make a roof that looks like an upside-down bowl.
Dome
Iron becomes brittle and cracks when you have (too much/too little) carbon.
Too much
Concrete with steel bars inside.
Steel-reinforced concrete.
Stone is strong in this, but weak in tension.
Compression
Arches don't just push down, they also push
Outward, or apart, or to the sides.
Famous Roman building with a giant dome. (Starts with a P)
Pantheon
The man who made steel cheap in 1856.
Henry Bessemer or just Bessemer
Very tall buildings made possible in the 20th century because we had cheap steel.
Skyscrapers or giant bridges.
When a stone lintel cracks it usually starts from this side of the lintel.
The bottom of the lintel
The arms outside a gothic cathedral that hold the walls in. They look like half of an arch.
Flying buttresses
This shape, made by a corbel, can help relieve the tension of a stone lintel.
Relieving triangle or just triangle
Steel is strong in both of these.
Compression and tension
The world's tallest building, in Dubai.
Burj Khalifa