
Engineers put Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design to the test - fraqed
http://news.mit.edu/2019/leonardo-da-vinci-bridge-test-1010
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spydum
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?

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mjevans
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.

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marcosdumay
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
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.

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ummonk
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).

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soperj
No like there hadn't been massive engineering projects with ridiculous
tolerances before. Ie: Roman Aqueducts, Cusco's walls.

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jandrese
It's certainly possible, but if there is an easier and just as sturdy option
available it would be easy to see an engineer going "thanks, but no thanks"
when handed this cocktail napkin looking sketch.

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noir_lord
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.

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

~~~
unsignedchar
The article mentions the Norway bridge. But says it was ‘inspired’, whereas
this one is a 1:500 scale model of the original design

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steve19
The Norway bridge was also wood while the MIT students argued it was intended
to be stone.

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degenerate
_" 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.

~~~
dang
Ok, let's use the MIT press release instead. URL changed from
[https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a29426711/da-
vinci-bridge/).

~~~
vertis
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

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dang
Who would identify which submissions are the same story?

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vertis
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
Yes, this is close to the various scribbles in my head on this topic, which
hopefully we can turn into working software one day.

