Our Y8 boys have been learning about structures, both natural and man-made, in Design and Technology this term.
Most recently, the boys have been looking at Leonardo da Vinci’s Self-Supporting Bridge. The bridge is ingenious for its constructive and structural simplicity; a structure made of simple circular-section beams that can be assembled without the use of fastenings.
In lessons, the boys built scale models, which, once completed, needed to be of sufficient weight to exert the necessary pressure so that the longitudinal beams could block the transversal ones in place by closing like a pair of scissors, thus preventing the structure from collapsing. The greater the pressure on the upper part of the bridge, the greater its stability.
Their models were highly impressive, and it is clear to see that the brilliance of one of the world’s most prolific inventors lives on.