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Interesting dive into the technology, troubleshooting, and process behind stabilizing the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

In the 90's, engineers discovered that the tower was extremely close to collapse, within just a few % of the structural limit. They spent a decade researching, experimenting, and developing a solution to permanently stabilize the tower, while also preserving it's unique features.

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[-] jack55555@lemmy.ml 29 points 10 months ago

It was extremely close to collapse, so they spent a DECADE researching. That’s ballsy.

[-] LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch 25 points 10 months ago

It was extremely close to collapse after over 800 years. They had time, just not an unlimited amount of it. People with a lifetime of experience and education knew how to work through the issue, and had a good idea of how long they had.

They closed the area off, did some tests, and worked slowly because some of their ideas made the problem worse. You don't want to rush solutions on completely unique problems, with completely unique artifacts.

[-] jack55555@lemmy.ml 7 points 10 months ago

That does make sense, interesting stuff.

[-] Tetsuo@jlai.lu 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They did so with temporary weights or other methods like cables to make sure it didn't get worse or collapse.

It's not a very long video :/ it's mentioned in there.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 points 10 months ago

Cables were just there in case the tower tipped over.

It was more a combination of temporary weights and freezing the ground.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

Fascinating... TIL the tower was built in three phases and each phase has it's own tilt due to being corrected for plumb as it went along.

It's not leaning, it's curved, which means it's another opportunity to talk about Peyroni's Disease. :)

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peyronies-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353468

[-] Khrux@ttrpg.network 11 points 10 months ago

It absolutely wasn't an opportunity but I respect it none the less.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 9 points 10 months ago

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[-] FishFace@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Never knew the details of this!

this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
102 points (96.4% liked)

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