Comments on: 728 ton pendulum

728 ton pendulum

homunculus — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:58:04 -0800

728 ton pendulum in action: Taipei 101's tuned mass damper during the Sichuan earthquake. [Via The Long Now Blog]

By: potch

potch — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:09:53 -0800

Holy crap that's an awesome sight.

By: Stunt

Stunt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:18:08 -0800

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.

By: empath

empath — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:26:44 -0800

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.

By: empath

empath — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:27:10 -0800

flower=floor, of course.

By: Durn Bronzefist

Durn Bronzefist — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:31:09 -0800

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.

By: sbutler

sbutler — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:37:10 -0800

I wish I had their faith in technology.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:38:59 -0800

If you're into buildings that move...

By: Dillonlikescookies

Dillonlikescookies — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:39:17 -0800

That is totally awesome.

By: Hicksu

Hicksu — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:45:10 -0800

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

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:46:39 -0800

Devo is suing for trademark infringement.

By: googly

googly — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:46:39 -0800

Tuned mass damper baby, yeah, that's the shit.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:56:35 -0800

Due to the shitty digital camera mic I couldn't tell if it was tuned or not.

By: rtha

rtha — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:58:47 -0800

Holy shit.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:06:34 -0800

Skyscraper that may cause earthquakes Oops. Hack the Surface of the Earth

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:13:21 -0800

I take it that everyone present realized what they were witnessing? I'm curious to know about that myself.

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:16:46 -0800

Reminds me of dyoneo's account of the Loma Prieta quake.

By: Faux Real

Faux Real — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:31:17 -0800

Soundtrack needed.

By: davejay

davejay — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:55:45 -0800

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...

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:04:04 -0800

Taipei can claim two firsts with 101, the tallest and ugliest building in the world.

By: goatdog

goatdog — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:04:18 -0800

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.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:13:30 -0800

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.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:33:56 -0800

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?????

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:35:58 -0800

Would it be possible to dual use a liquid mass damper as an olympic swimming pool or SCUBA diving facility?

By: bwg

bwg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:36:54 -0800

ugliest building in the world. Not by a long shot.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:39:43 -0800

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.

By: bwg

bwg — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:41:51 -0800

Forgot to show you one ugly-assed building.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:54:40 -0800

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*

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:05:04 -0800

By: Sphinx

Sphinx — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:11:10 -0800

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.

By: rmmcclay

rmmcclay — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:36:44 -0800

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.

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:32:35 -0800

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!

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:53:23 -0800

that coyote builds the craziest contraptions...

By: asok

asok — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:46:34 -0800

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.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:08:15 -0800

Umm, the earthquake was in mainlain China, not Taiwan. You'd have to be a special kind of ass to start panicking at that.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:25:05 -0800

...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.

By: rmmcclay

rmmcclay — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:28:50 -0800

omg @ DU - that's funny!

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:11:04 -0800

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?

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:28:46 -0800

You can't stand too close to a 728 ton pendulum, just like you can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:47:44 -0800

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.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:05:05 -0800

Dang, quin. Nothing has changed with you, has it? You're just as evil now as when I use to be The Deej.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:47:24 -0800

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.

By: artifarce

artifarce — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:34:46 -0800

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.

By: Free word order!

Free word order! — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:38:21 -0800

False etymology fact: Mentioning 'having balls' as requirement for daring act comes from tightrope walkers, who counteract rope swings with their swinging balls.

By: JoeXIII007

JoeXIII007 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:42:46 -0800

That is some pretty impressive footage. It is a nod of approval and respect for the engineers who built it.

By: effugas

effugas — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:10:32 -0800

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.

By: artifarce

artifarce — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:46:02 -0800

effugas, why ice? There are already tuned liquid mass dampers. Extra bonus if they let you swim in it. :)

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:59:20 -0800

Effugas, you could freeze mercury I suppose. Not that that would be sane.

By: bwg

bwg — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:37:39 -0800

... 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.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:27:56 -0800

like watching superman in action!

By: humannaire

humannaire — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:22:29 -0800

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!]

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:44:34 -0800

And the world...

... is safe again.