The catenary arch has been around a long time. It took the mathematicians; Leibniz, Bernouli and Jung to come up with
the formula that described the arch. The arch is formed when you suspend a wet rope or heavy metal chain between two points.
The resultant curve is quite pleasant in appearance. This technique can be used in determining a curve for a doorway or bridge.
The students take to building the bridge immediately and by trial and error achieve that pleasant curve. Even though
I have an arch set up already, few students will be interested in copying mine. They will want to make their own.
It is the testing of the bridge that gets everyone involved in some sort of unannounced competition. The rush to
see who can pile on the most, stack stuff the highest, will have many teams calling out for this teacher to see their proud
creations.
This teacher finds the best labs to be the ones that surprise everyone. There was no way to predict that students would
spontaneously get a competition going when I first selected this lab years ago. The strength of the arch surprised everyone.
Commendations (in advance) to the enthusiastic students in the classes. I look forward to watching you all do the many
labs and projects planned for the year.
