Monday 23 June 2008

Taipei 101's Amazing 728-Ton Stabilising Ball


The enormous steel ball you see in the photos and the video in this article is the world's largest 'tuned mass damper' and sits near the top of the world's largest completed skyscraper on earth, Taipei 101 in Taiwan.

The idea behind a tuned mass damper is quite simple: as a building sways (resulting from high winds, earthquakes etc.), its tuned mass damper, essentially a finely tuned and ridiculously heavy pendulum, will move in opposition to the structure's oscillations and minimise any movement.

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