Mathematical Interesting Buildings pt 1

I love that mathematics is all around us, especially in the buildings we live in and see everyday.  We see squares and rectangles in the doors, and windows, cubes and rectangular prisms in houses, trapezoids and triangles on the roofs.  Then there are cylinders and ovals in ancient ruins.  In addition, there are several mathematically based buildings that are especially interesting.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one.  It is the largest of three pyramids found near Giza in Egypt.  It held the record for being the tallest building in the world for close to 3800 years. In addition, it has several interesting math facts associated with it.  If you divide it’s perimeter by  twice it’s height, you end up with the value of pi - 3.1415.... If you measure the perimeter in cubits, you end up with 365.24 which is the same as the number of days in the year.  Lastly,the measurements of the King’s chamber is based on the 3-4-5 pythagorean triangle.

Then there is the Taj Mahal in India.  This beautiful mausoleum was built around 1600 by Shah Jahan for his wife.  If you stand in front of the building, you’ll see a beautiful example of line symmetry with two visible lines.  One line runs down the middle of the building itself while the other one is the reflection of the prayer tower on the water in front.

Next is the Eden Project in Southwest England.  It was built in 2001 and is filled with greenhouses but not the usual ones.  Most of the greenhouses are shaped as geodesic domes with hexagonal and pentagonal cells.  Furthermore, the educational center was designed based on the Fibonacci numbers to reflect nature.  

The Parthenon in Greece is built with a beautiful height to length ratio 4:9 for both vertical and horizontal proportions of the columns, spaces, and other parts of the building.  To overcome a visual illusion of having columns look thinner in the middle if viewed from a distance, they built the column with thicker centers.  

The Gherkin in London is unique in that it is a circular building with a bulge in the middle, tapers at the top with a spiraling design.  The design of the building makes it more stable and creates the illusion that it is shorter than it really is.  In addition, the design makes it easier to heat and cool so it cuts down on costs and it was designed using a CAD program using parametric modeling. 

On Wednesday, I’ll cover  more mathematically interesting buildings so you can share them with students to see additional real examples of how math is used in the real world.  Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear.  Have a good day.