‎Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity - Apple TV

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Your world is filled with structures that have stood the test of time. Experience the engineering genius that makes these works possible. Travel around the world and hear the stories behind the most famous structures in history. It will change the way you think about the buildings around you.

Educational · 2011 · 34 min

Starring Stephen Ressler

EPISODE 1

Learning to See and Understand Structure

How are ideas for buildings, bridges, and towers transformed from sketches to concrete reality? What are the three essential qualities that make a structure great? What's the difference between seeing a structure and actually understanding it? Discover the answers to these and other questions.

33 min · Mar 4, 2011
EPISODE 2

The Science of Structure: Forces in Balance

Explore how two types of external forces - loads (forces applied to structures) and reactions (forces developed at supports, in response to applied loads) - act on structures such as Kansas City's Chouteau Bridge. Also, learn how these forces are related to the most important concept in engineering mechanics: equilibrium.

32 min · Mar 4, 2011
EPISODE 3

Internal Forces, Stress, and Strength

Use the Simple Tension Test (pulling on a structural element until it reaches the breaking point) as a gateway to understanding the concepts of internal force, stress, and strength. Then, see these concepts at work in structures such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Athens' Olympic Velodrome.

31 min · Mar 4, 2011
EPISODE 4

From Wood to Steel: Properties of Materials

Materials profoundly influence the form, function, and structure of great buildings, bridges, and towers. Using steel (which is superior in terms of strength, ductility, and stiffness) as a benchmark, compare the structural properties of wood, masonry, concrete, and iron - and see them at work in thousands of years' worth of structures.

31 min · Mar 4, 2011
EPISODE 5

Building Up: Columns and Buckling

One of the most potent human aspirations supported by engineering is to build up. Learn how this has been done from antiquity to the present with columns - structural members that carry load primarily in compression. You'll also learn about buckling: the often catastrophic stability failure that occurs in columns with certain geometric characteristics.

32 min · Mar 4, 2011
EPISODE 6

Building Across: Beams and Bending

Beams, combining tension and compression, are central to the second aspiration supported by engineering: building across long distances. As you survey beams from the primitive lintel over the Lion Gate at Mycenae to Norway's Raftsundet Bridge, you'll investigate scientific developments and transform your understanding of what makes this structural element possible.

31 min · Mar 4, 2011

Stephen Ressler

Host