728 ton pendulum

June 26, 2008 8:58 PM

728 ton pendulum in action: Taipei 101's tuned mass damper during the Sichuan earthquake. [Via The Long Now Blog]
posted by homunculus (51 comments total)

Holy crap that's an awesome sight.
posted by potch at 9:09 PM on June 26, 2008

Wow. I mean, I know they work and I understand WHY, but seeing one actually doing its thing during something like that is kind of neat.
posted by Stunt at 9:18 PM on June 26, 2008

I'm fairly sure my first reaction to being in the top flower of the tower during an earthquake would be to curl up into the fetal position.
posted by empath at 9:26 PM on June 26, 2008

flower=floor, of course.
posted by empath at 9:27 PM on June 26, 2008

That is just completely amazing.

I take it that everyone present realized what they were witnessing? I'm with empath. I don't think I'd be playing camera man.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:31 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

I wish I had their faith in technology.
posted by sbutler at 9:37 PM on June 26, 2008

If you're into buildings that move...
posted by rokusan at 9:38 PM on June 26, 2008

That is totally awesome.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 9:39 PM on June 26, 2008

as the building started to shake, dozens of people ran to the damper to watch it in action

I love those people.
posted by Hicksu at 9:45 PM on June 26, 2008 [4 favorites]

Devo is suing for trademark infringement.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:46 PM on June 26, 2008 [12 favorites]

Tuned mass damper baby, yeah, that's the shit.
posted by googly at 9:46 PM on June 26, 2008

Due to the shitty digital camera mic I couldn't tell if it was tuned or not.
posted by dhartung at 9:56 PM on June 26, 2008 [3 favorites]

Holy shit.
posted by rtha at 9:58 PM on June 26, 2008

Skyscraper that may cause earthquakes

Oops.

Hack the Surface of the Earth
posted by homunculus at 10:06 PM on June 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

I take it that everyone present realized what they were witnessing?

I'm curious to know about that myself.
posted by Artw at 10:13 PM on June 26, 2008

Reminds me of dyoneo's account of the Loma Prieta quake.
posted by dirigibleman at 10:16 PM on June 26, 2008

Soundtrack needed.
posted by Faux Real at 10:31 PM on June 26, 2008

I, too, wonder if the people watching realized that every movement was actually 50% the building they were in moving. Then again, I guess that's what the "woo!" crowd noises were, the people feeling and responding to the swaying...
posted by davejay at 10:55 PM on June 26, 2008

Taipei can claim two firsts with 101, the tallest and ugliest building in the world.
posted by mattoxic at 11:04 PM on June 26, 2008

Q: Why would you build a building that enormous only 600 ft from a fault line?
A: To show off your huge tuned mass damper.
posted by goatdog at 11:04 PM on June 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

I would be really tempted to jump on that thing and go for a ride. Might be going down anyway, might as well have some fun.

I suppose the hydraulic rams would easily compensate for my off-axis weight on the big heavy thing, but I bet if enough people jumped on it and actively damped the damper during an earthquare it would break something.


Also, from what I've read elsewhere on the net the translation of what the camera guy is saying goes something like "Earthquake? Earthquake? Earthquake!?" and about 1/3rd of the way through, notice the screaming and general chatter that kicks up in the video.

People knew what was going on. You'd feel it, even with the damper. Earthquakes have a particular sensation that's sort of like, well, the ground is moving. Your equilibrium goes haywire. Everything feels weird.
posted by loquacious at 11:13 PM on June 26, 2008 [2 favorites]

Sometimes you see something in the background that catches your eye. In Artw's link about the Taipei building being blamed for causing an earthquake was this:

In 1967, mountains of waste that had been injected into the Rocky Mountains set off a magnitude 5.5 earthquake under Denver in Colorado.

They are injecting mountains of waste into the Rocky Mountains?????
posted by eye of newt at 11:33 PM on June 26, 2008

Would it be possible to dual use a liquid mass damper as an olympic swimming pool or SCUBA diving facility?
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:35 PM on June 26, 2008

ugliest building in the world.

Not by a long shot.
posted by bwg at 11:36 PM on June 26, 2008

Loquacious, it's 1.5 million pounds. You might be able to get enough people on it to affect its motion, but the people on the bottom layer would probably be crushed to death before you got to that point.
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:39 PM on June 26, 2008

Forgot to show you one ugly-assed building.
posted by bwg at 11:41 PM on June 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Reminds me of the huge wrought iron chandeliers that were directly above me in the Loma Prieta quake, swinging a good 20 degrees even though I was 264 miles away. *shudders*
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:54 PM on June 26, 2008

Loquacious, it's 1.5 million pounds. You might be able to get enough people on it to affect its motion, but the people on the bottom layer would probably be crushed to death before you got to that point.

Ok. Let's do it. Someone else, first.
posted by loquacious at 12:05 AM on June 27, 2008

I simply love these immense structures that illustrate such fundamental forces in such a simple yet totally profound way that one can show no shame at simply being left open-mouthed, like someone not only told you they could balance the Great Pyramid upside down, but actually did it.
posted by Sphinx at 12:11 AM on June 27, 2008

I live near the 101 and I didn't feel the Sichuan earthquake on the 5th floor of a nearby building . But friends did on the 15th floor in a building nearer to the 101. Basically it was a small tremor here in north Taiwan.

Watching how much the damper is moving under the conditions of a small tremor it will be pinging off the walls if Taipei gets hit with anything above a 5.
posted by rmmcclay at 12:36 AM on June 27, 2008

I don't think I'd be playing camera man.

Why not? Either the building is going to collapse, or it isn't, and there's nothing you can do about it - the ball is mounted so high in the building that if you can see it, you're not going to have enough time to get out of the building before it collapses, if it collapses.

So you might as well get some footage. Either you can post a cool video on youtube afterwards, or your descendants find a camera in the rubble and do it for you, with probably a lot more interest by CNN and Fox. It's a bit like in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy:

[Quote:]

Barman: Did you say the world is coming to an end? Shouldn't we all lie on the floor or put paper bags over our heads?
Ford: If you like.
Barman: Will it help?
Ford: Not at all.
[Ford runs out of the pub]
Barman: Last orders, please!

posted by DreamerFi at 2:32 AM on June 27, 2008 [3 favorites]

that coyote builds the craziest contraptions...
posted by sexyrobot at 2:53 AM on June 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

bwg, that building in North Korea may be a stupid, uninhabitable waste of space, but I find it's appearance far from being as ugly as a 'normal' oblong skyscraper. At least it has some angles on it that are something other than right angles.
posted by asok at 3:46 AM on June 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

Umm, the earthquake was in mainlain China, not Taiwan. You'd have to be a special kind of ass to start panicking at that.
posted by Eideteker at 4:08 AM on June 27, 2008

...as the building started to shake, dozens of people ran to the damper to watch it in action.

If there's one place you want to be during an earthquake, it's standing next to a 728 ton pendulum.
posted by DU at 4:25 AM on June 27, 2008

omg @ DU - that's funny!
posted by rmmcclay at 6:28 AM on June 27, 2008

Well, everyone that wasn't next to the 728 ton pendulum but who was inside the building would actually be under that pendulum.

Anyone up for pudding?
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:11 AM on June 27, 2008

You can't stand too close to a 728 ton pendulum, just like you can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 8:28 AM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ok, I'll admit it, the super-villain part of my soul mandated that the first thing I wanted to do when I realized that there was a 728 ton pendulum hanging at the 88th floor of a building was see what happened when you cut the supporting cables.

I imagine it would be a spectacularly bad thing to do.
posted by quin at 8:47 AM on June 27, 2008

Dang, quin. Nothing has changed with you, has it? You're just as evil now as when I use to be The Deej.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:05 AM on June 27, 2008

What can I say? The demons who live behind my eyes have a taste for destruction. The angel who lived on my shoulder was pretty good scolding them which kept them in check, but I haven't seen it in a while.

I think the demons may have garroted him while I wasn't looking.
posted by quin at 9:47 AM on June 27, 2008

Heh. I was going to post this the other day. Glad to see other mefites who are similarly amazed by this. So I'll add the video of the Damper Baby Posse.
posted by artifarce at 10:34 AM on June 27, 2008

False etymology fact: Mentioning 'having balls' as requirement for daring act comes from tightrope walkers, who counteract rope swings with their swinging balls.
posted by Free word order! at 10:38 AM on June 27, 2008

That is some pretty impressive footage. It is a nod of approval and respect for the engineers who built it.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 10:42 AM on June 27, 2008

So I was thinking it would be more efficient to simply freeze water into the shape of a mass damper.

Then I looked up the numbers -- iron is about 8 times more dense than ice, and concrete (if I'm doing the math right -- may not be) is about 3 times more dense. Plus you have the added cost of keeping the ice cold.

Alas.
posted by effugas at 12:10 PM on June 27, 2008

effugas, why ice? There are already tuned liquid mass dampers.

Extra bonus if they let you swim in it. :)
posted by artifarce at 12:46 PM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Effugas, you could freeze mercury I suppose. Not that that would be sane.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:59 PM on June 27, 2008

... I find it's appearance far from being as ugly as a 'normal' oblong skyscraper.

Okay, so you like the Tower of Doom. Well then, here's some more.
posted by bwg at 4:37 PM on June 27, 2008

like watching superman in action!
posted by kliuless at 3:27 AM on June 28, 2008

You're just as evil now as when I use to be The Deej.

Waitaminit, The Deej is Fuzzy Skinner?!

[breaks glass, pushes discreet button hidden on watch and belt buckle, telepathichally signals world's metahuman population: The Deej is amongst us!]
posted by humannaire at 4:22 PM on June 28, 2008

And the world...

... is safe again.

posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 6:44 PM on June 28, 2008