Thursday 27 February 2020

Stopping the roof falling in at Bake Off

We went to see the snowdrops at Welford Park, home of the Great British Bake Off. I was windering about the S-shaped metal bits under the eaves of this building. Then I realised that it must be attached to a long metal pole that stretches through the building and out the other side. When you put a roof on a building, it has a tendency to sag downwards. That pushes the walls out. By Newton's 1st Law there needs to be an equal and opposite force to stop that happening. The S-shape spreads the force out over a bigger area and so reduces the pressure, stopping the bolt ripping through the brickwork.