Large span arch structures have been constructed for well over two
thousand years, but as far as we know the first recorded analytical
treatment was given by Robert Hooke in 1675 who at the end of his treatise
on helioscopes added the following statement “to fill up the vacancy”:
“The true mathematical and mechanical form of all manner of arches for
building, with the true butment necessary to each of them. A problem which
no architectonick writer hath ever yet attempted, much less performed.
"abcccddeeeeefggiiiiiiiillmmmmnnnnnooprrsssttttttuuuuuuuvx” *
We surmise this was written to annoy Isaac Newton. The solution to this
anagram was published in 1705 (after Hooke’s death) as:
“Ut pendet continuum flexile, sic stabit contiguum rigidum inversum”
which translates as:
“As hangs the flexible line, so but inverted will stand the rigid arch”
At the right we have the famed St. Louis (Missouri) Arch, a catenary.
thousand years, but as far as we know the first recorded analytical
treatment was given by Robert Hooke in 1675 who at the end of his treatise
on helioscopes added the following statement “to fill up the vacancy”:
“The true mathematical and mechanical form of all manner of arches for
building, with the true butment necessary to each of them. A problem which
no architectonick writer hath ever yet attempted, much less performed.
"abcccddeeeeefggiiiiiiiillmmmmnnnnnooprrsssttttttuuuuuuuvx” *
We surmise this was written to annoy Isaac Newton. The solution to this
anagram was published in 1705 (after Hooke’s death) as:
“Ut pendet continuum flexile, sic stabit contiguum rigidum inversum”
which translates as:
“As hangs the flexible line, so but inverted will stand the rigid arch”
At the right we have the famed St. Louis (Missouri) Arch, a catenary.
