Leaning Tower of Pisa Secure For 300 More Years

Ponca City, We Love You writes "The tower of Pisa began to lean five years after its construction began, in 1178, and by 1990 it had tilted more than four meters off its true vertical. Conservationists estimated that the entire 14,500-ton structure would collapse 'some time between 2030 and 2040.' Now the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized and declared safe for at least another three centuries. The stabilization, which cost $30M, was accomplished by anchoring it to cables and lead counterweights, while 70 tons of soil were removed from the side away from the lean, and cement was injected into the ground to relieve the pressure. The tilt has now returned to where it was in the early 19th century. Nicholas Shrady, author of Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa, says that the tower was destined to lean from the outset because it was built on 'what is essentially a former bog.' Shrady adds that the tower previously came close to collapsing in 1838, 1934, and 1995. (The commission convened in 1990 to study the tower's stability was the 17th such.) Although Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped cannon balls from the tower in a gravity experiment, Shrady says the myth is the result of 'the overripe imagination of Galileo's secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani.'"

Please proofread summary just a little bit

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

...tower of Pis began...

...buildt on...

The first of those is pretty obvious.

It's a famous landmark!

[johannesg (664142)]

It's right besides the Empire Scat Building!

Re:Please proofread summary just a little bit

[aeSentinel (1197425)]

You sure are a douche. Please kill yourself.

Anybody that can't spell a word as simple as "after" should be shoot.

Oblig Simpsons quote.

[AltGrendel (175092)]

"I find that work perfectly cromulent."

Tower of Pis?

[bushboy (112290)]

Hmm, proof readers day off then?

I'm usually leaning when I have a tower of piss.

Re:Tower of Pis?

[sessamoid (165542)]

Tower of Pis? Is that something like this?

       333333333
      .........
      111111111
     444444444
     111111111
    555555555
    999999999
   222222222
   666666666
  555555555
  333333333
666666666666

Re:

[Whiteox (919863)]

hahahahaha! Buckaroo Banzai :)

Re:

[jalet (36114)]

I went several times to Pisa. Your drawing is incorrect, the tower leans to the opposite way.

Crap

[baggins2001 (697667)]

I had Aug 2034 in the office pool.
You bastards.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I had Aug 2034 in the office pool.

You bastards.

How much is the pool for? A hundred pounds of Detcord and you could still win.

Re:

[youthoftoday (975074)]

2034? That's quite some job security you got there.

Wow, just like Superman III!

[BitwizeGHC (145393)]

Hint: Remember when Supes straightened the Tower after being exposed to the tar-kryptonite?

Safe for 300 years

[DrXym (126579)]

Remarks like that are an open invitation for epic failure.

Re:Safe for 300 years

[Swizec (978239)]

The tower is safe for 300 years!!
This ship is unsinkable!!

Anyone else seeing similarities?

Re:Safe for 300 years

[Alpha Whisky (1264174)]

Are you saying there are icebergs in Pisa?

Re:

[MrMr (219533)]

It has beeing leaning for almost a 1000 years already. Giving it another 30% extra after a major update isn't that spectacular.

That's just wrong...

[NoobixCube (1133473)]

To me, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a monument of how human mistakes live on for centuries, and it was a miracle it was still standing. Now they've gone and reinforced it and taken all the fun out of it. They might as well have straightened it... It was also funny to me how an utterly useless building (who'd want to work with gravity pulling you gently towards the open window?) is conserved simply because it's old. If the same thing had happened today, which it does on a regular basis, the building wou

Re:That's just wrong...

[thermian (1267986)]

It couldn't be straightened anyway, it wasn't finished before it began to lean, so the upper levels were built to be level with the amount of tilt present at that time.

Re:

[PopeRatzo (965947)]

so the upper levels were built to be level with the amount of tilt present at that time.

I think about that.

I live about 9 blocks from the downtown Chicago and when I walk my dog, I like to gaze at the stunning Chicago skyline. I'm literally in the shadow of Sears Tower early in the morning, and sometimes it seems like some of the older buildings between the Tower and me look to be a tiny bit leaning.

It's probably just a trick of the perspective, but as a non-engineer (actually, the anti-engineer), I marvel

Re:That's just wrong...

[mh1997 (1065630)]

I live about 9 blocks from the downtown Chicago and when I walk my dog, I like to gaze at the stunning Chicago skyline. I'm literally in the shadow of Sears Tower early in the morning, and sometimes it seems like some of the older buildings between the Tower and me look to be a tiny bit leaning.

It's probably just a trick of the perspective, but as a non-engineer (actually, the anti-engineer), I marvel most of all that man is able to build so high and straight and true.

There is no proof that humans built any of the buildings in Chicago. Furthermore, we don't have the technology to build higher than two or three stories at most. Obviously the same space aliens that built the pyramids built Chicago skyscrapers. I think a different group of aliens built Los Angeles - Mexicans.

Re:Stupid builders

[NormalVisual (565491)]

Given the way management works, I'd imagine the builders tried to do exactly that, only to be told by their superiors to continue working until it was finished, regardless of the outcome. If it fell, the workers would be blamed for their substandard work. If not, it would serve as a testament to management's foresight and proof of their competence to any who might have criticized their decision. In no case would the project's management ever be held to any kind of responsibility for anything bad that might happen.

It's the way it's always worked, and the way it always will work.

Re:

[pokerdad (1124121)]

To me, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was a monument of how human mistakes live on for centuries, and it was a miracle it was still standing. Now they've gone and reinforced it and taken all the fun out of it. They might as well have straightened it... It was also funny to me how an utterly useless building (who'd want to work with gravity pulling you gently towards the open window?) is conserved simply because it's old. If the same thing had happened today, which it does on a regular basis, the building would have been torn down.

They do their best to keep it leaning, but not falling because that tower is what makes Pisa famous.

And while its true that its current state is manufacturered, this has been the case for a long time. It has been straighten before and it has been reinforced before, so this newest work changes nothing as its state before the latest work was already an artificial one.

Also, you are right, it is conserved because it is old. What do you think they could build in its place that would have more value than th

Re:That's just wrong...

[hey! (33014)]

Well you're assuming that it will stand for centuries without any problem. Validating that assumption is useful as an engineering test case.

And the Tower is only useless if art and history and engineering education are useless. While its foundation of course is famously defective, consider this: the oldest parts of this structure are nine hundred years old; the newest parts are seven hundred years old. What the medieval world lacked in civil engineering, it had to make up out of a combination of trial and error, craft, and sheer daring. Because they did not have the civil engineering knowledge, any structure like this that they built might collapse at any time. It's remarkable people even undertook projects like this, which were the work of centuries, many, many short lived generations.

Yet even so, the tower has stood all this time, out of true. At the very least a fitting monument to the generations of craftsmen who built it so well.

In any case the Leaning Tower serves as the bell tower of the Cathedral of Pisa, so it is not literally "useless".

Re:That's just wrong...

[YeeHaW_Jelte (451855)]

You sir, are a cold-hearted bastard with no sense for culture, aesthetics and history.

Just because your overly functional mind sees no use for a building doesn't mean other people can't derive pleasure from it.

Re:

[redGiraffe (189625)]

1. build tower
2. it leans!
3. $$$

Re:

[ishark (245915)]

Uh?????

who'd want to work with gravity pulling you gently towards the open window?

Do you think it's an office building or what? It's a bell tower. As long as it doesn't fall it serves it purpose. What is funny is that there are many other leaning towers around, but for some reason the one in Pisa has become "The" leaning tower.

Re:That's just wrong...

[MagdJTK (1275470)]

Exactly. I mean, when the French stopped using the Eiffel Tower for broadcasting, they tore it down immediately! As an Englishman, I've been campaigning for years for Big Ben to be demolished --- who needs it when we've got digital watches now? Pull your finger out, people of Pisa!

Re:That's just wrong...

[Opportunist (166417)]

It's a landmark and even more importantly a tourist attraction. That's why it's valuable. And no, straightening would not have been an alternative, because the only thing that makes this thing at least somewhat interesting is its crookedness. It's like giving a freak show exhibit a correctional operation. Nobody would wanna see it anymore.

If you're looking for useless buildings, you needn't go to Italy. Every country has them. From cathedrals to some person's birthplace to other monuments. Though, are they so useless? They serve, as mentioned above, tourist attractions, as some sort of spiritual focus and if nothing else as a reminder that earlier generations existed and did something spectacular as well. By your logic, the Pyramids would make a pretty nifty quarry.

Re:

[NoobixCube (1133473)]

Heavens, do you ever get any fun at all in your life? Do you ever laugh? Is there ever anything that you find interesting, fascinating, or just plain beautiful, just for its own sake?

I do laugh. I laugh at the immortalised screwup that is the Leaning Tower. I laugh at Steve Ballmer's latest buzzword-laden, meaningless sentence. I laugh when a politician tries vainly to take a serious stance on an issue they know nothing about; doubly hard when they have a financial interest in that issue. Anyway, it's useless perusing a phonebook for spelling errors. People spell their surnames all kinds of weird ways :P.

Tower of Pies! Delicious!

[Maavin (598439)]

Am I right?
Tower Of Pies [herbivoracious.com]

Re:

[Opportunist (166417)]

I tried that, but after stacking a few of those things it started leaning to one side and ... hmmm...

Did anyone actually try to take a bite out of that tower?

Well, there's a downside to all this

[Haoie (1277294)]

Another 300 years of putting up with Leaning Tower of Pizza jokes.

Re:

[Vectronic (1221470)]

Well, there's an upside to all this

Another 300 years of crafting more Leaning Tower Of Pisa jokes.

Hmm.

[apodyopsis (1048476)]

Of course if they straightened it totally it would be worse, because the top leans the other way slightly as the builders attempted to compensate.

Very off topic... Moderator points.

[splutty (43475)]

I'm sorry, this is totally off topic, but to get an answer to this, posting it in the first thread is my best chance, probably.

I used to get 5 moderator points, then a while ago, I had 10, now I have 15... Does anyone have any clue what on earth is going on? Do they stack over time if unused?

And to stay slightly on-topic: I find it hilarious that they're fixing old engineering mistakes using modern engineering principles that are technically over 3000 years old ;)

Re:Very off topic... Moderator points.

[justthinkit (954982)]

The same points distribution has happened to myself, so I hazard a guess that the pool of moderators is limited, compared to the amount of moderation needed, so they are giving each moderator more points. This is supported by the fact that they don't extend the time given to use the points, so the net effect is that more mod points are awarded. Based on the age of some of the meta-mods I have done, they are months and months behind on that task, so it is reasonable that they could be behind on the moderating one. Given that the head honchos have unlimited mod points, to "mop up" what the moderators don't get, this new arrangement should free them a bit from the never-ending moderating task. Feel free to mod this -1, speculation.

On-topic, the Tower Of Pisa is like Windows -- throw more money at the problem, but never fix it, and people will actually enjoy the defects. Marketing over engineering wins again!

Great work

[asc99c (938635)]

I reckon they've actually done a really good job here. With modern equipment, I think that technically they could just fix the foundations and set it back to vertical. But if it's not leaning then it's not much of a tourist attraction anymore.

Stabilising an ancient tower in a still leaning position is pretty impressive.

The degree of lean

[Huntr (951770)]

According to the article,

By 1990 it had tilted more than four metres off its true vertical

Then it says

The tilt has now returned to where it was in the early 19th century, with a lean out of true of 3.99 metres

According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org], they moved it about 45 cm, meaning 45 cm is the difference between toppling in the next few decades vs the next few centuries.

Re:Aye, the Europeans be fit

[FrYGuY101 (770432)]

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a tower on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest tower in these lands.

Re:Gal Civ 2 perchance?!

[Angostura (703910)]

Is Gal Civ 2 entirely written in Python, then?

Re:

[Soft Cosmic Rusk (1211950)]

Taken from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"...

Re:

[The Redster! (874352)]

That's the problem with slashdot moderation. You can clearly see the violence inherent in the system.

Re:

[lilomar (1072448)]

Mod parent up. ;.)

Re:

[paintswithcolour (929954)]

It's not completely regarded as a myth; there are a handful of Galileo scholars that think there may be some reality to it. It's all conjecture though, a single source of questionable reliability will forever make it impossible to distinguish myth from fact.

Re:

[grumm0x (1300553)]

Galileo was a smart man, certainly smarter than me. And even I know enough not to take a heavy weight to the top of something that's fixin' to fall over. Unless it was a "Hey, Bubba, watch this!" moment.

Re:

[thermian (1267986)]

I've had physics teachers that have retold the story as fact

Doesn't matter, fact or not its a useful teaching mechanism. Plus of course the recipient of that knowledge then learns the truth later, which has the effect of reinforcing the basics facts which the original example was used to teach.

Anyway, its a fun story, who cares if its not true? There are so many things for which we don't know the events that discovered them, and people do love a story.

Re:

[Free the Cowards (1280296)]

Also, they're physics teachers, not history teachers. Get your history from those who have been trained in it. You shouldn't even trust what your teachers tell you in their area of expertise, much less random stuff that they tell you that's completely outside of it.

Re:OB Monty Python

[theheadlessrabbit (1022587)]

And I've had biology teachers tell the evolution story as fact. We're all in the same boat.

ahoy, fellow Pastafarian!
yar....why ye be posting as AC?

you should be proud to attach your name to a post declaring your belief that the great pasta in the sky created all life

RAmen

Re:

[oodaloop (1229816)]

That's right, it's only a theory, like the theory of gravity and the atomic theory. It's hard to believe they would teach any of that in school. We all know the only explanation of the universe is Unintelligent Design, which says that the creator, blessed be his noodliness, was too stupid or drunk when creating everything. It's the only logical explanation for why Jar Jar Binks could exist.

Re:

[Skagit (910458)]

The tower is built on alluvial silt, and that's pretty nasty stuff to build on. Modern techniques for such poor soils rely on very large and very stiff concrete mats, like Chicago's skyscrapers, or on piles driven to bedrock like at the beach. One of the temporary stabilizing measures they used for the tower was to stiffen the soil by pumping liquid nitrogen through pipes to freeze the groundwater in the silt to prevent it from subsiding more on the side of the tilt until they figured out a more permanent s