How High Can Buildings Go? How can we measure them? SAFELY!!

Safe Measuring Estimate 5 ft 9 ft 1191 ft X

Solving the Proportion Woman’s Height Woman’s Shadow = Building Height Building Shadow 5 9 = X X = 5*1191 9X = X = 662 Feet

Actual Structure & Height Space Needle (Seattle Center) Built 1961 for ’62 World’s Fair Seattle, Washington Edward E. Carlson, designer 605 feet high (184 meter) Picture and information from blspaceneedle.htm (Our estimate: 662 ft, included the antennae)

Teachable Moments Begin: 1191 ft How will you measure the structure’s shadow?

Teacher Responds: 1191 ft You pace it out.

Pacing It Out Count your average steps in 100 feet Count steps as you walk shadow’s length Then use a proportion 1191 ft

Pacing It Out 1191 ft 33 steps 100 feet = 393 steps X feet 33 X = 39,300 X = 1,190.9 feet

More Teachable Moments So what are the ACTUAL tallest buildings in the world??

The Tallest “Building”? CN Tower was the tallest “structure” until September of 2007 Toronto, Ontario 1,815 ft, 5 in height Guinness World Record for 31 yrs! But many argued that this was not a building

CN Tower: Deck View

Still More Teachable Moments What about the World Trade Center?

World Trade Center Terrorists destroyed the old “Twin Towers” on 09/11/2001 –Built in 1973 –110 stories high –1,368 feet high New “Freedom tower” –Completion Year 2013? –1,368 feet high –1,776 feet with spire

Tallest Buildings (2007) 1.Taipei 101Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan ,667 2.Petronas TowerPetronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ,483 3.Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ,483 4.Sears TowerSears Tower, Chicago ,451 5.Jin Mao Building, Shanghai ,381 6.(Under Construction) Freedom Tower, New York City2013?4171,368 (7.)Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong ,362 (8.)CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China ,283 (9.)Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China ,260 (10.)Empire State BuildingEmpire State Building, New York ,250 Year Stories Meters Feet

Recent New Record Set Building & LocationYearStories Height Chief Architect M.Ft. Burj Khalifa, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE 1/4/ ,717 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Nobody really knows the answer Records are made to be broken How Tall Can Buildings Go?