I'm so freaking hyped that you're making new content. I'm glad you are doing well. Many of us owe you a lot I'm in my mid-30s now....and when I started watching your stuff ... Back when you first started making videos...I had followed a path of strictly woodworking and being in business for myself dealing antique instruments. Always hated and avoided a lot of engineering things especially electronics and such. But somehow fell backwards into systems engineering specializing in metrology equipment troubleshooting and repair. And your content was a huge part in making me see the world that way and find those things interesting. A huge part
@@whoccc agreed. I try using it more positively when I can. But it's rare. Content has turned into something to be quickly packaged up and sold on to viewers.... With little or no thought put in. Which obviously isn't the case here. The type of stuff mr. Bill has put out over the years... Grabbed a lot of folks attention and drove them into a totally new direction in academia and beyond. Very few if any creators have had a similar effect on me and people I know. Maybe folks like mr. Carlson's lab, maybe some of Tom Scott's stuff. AvE....ect. hell I even know a few guys that got into electrical engineering.... straight up because of big Clive and his videos and talks about his experience getting into electrical engineering work. Same with "diode gone wild." So many difficult and negative things online. So it really makes it special when somebody like Bill comes along. The shining Star in a sea of darkness and filth. Edit (no judgment.....I enjoy the filth just as much as the next guy from time to time.....🤘 But every now and then we need to clear motivation and guiding light)
I showed the Engineering of the aluminum can to my gf yesterday, she was completely surprised and amazed by how complex and ingenious it all actually is. Bill is just amazing at what he does. I am so happy these videos are exist. Thank you Bill!
This is near to my heart, for many years I was a pipe organ builder, and methods like this were used to build those fantastically effective and sophisticated devices before we had any deep scientific understanding of the fluid dynamics and acoustic science and mechanical disciplines which underpin them. Centuries of refinement of the rules of thumb in organ building honed them to such degree that most of them have gone right on being used as the standards even as the scientific and analytical tools have became ubiquitous. Thanks so much for this!
I am a practicing structural engineer, in continuous practice 40 years since I graduated from a prestigious university. For years I’ve been interested in the design of arches, but nearly every reference or text I’ve seen used modern beam theory to explain how to design one. When these great structures were constructed, there was no ‘beam theory’, or the calculus used to find solutions to design problems using it. Yet those medieval structures stand, for millennia in some cases. Thank you for starting to describe the methods used by those very early masons and designers. It is very valuable, at least to this engineer.
@@hans-joachimbierwirth4727 Wdym? It's all a grand conspiracy and these buildings were built using advanced mathematics? Or are you saying these cathedrals aren't as old as we're told and bound to collapse soon?
Even for you, I betcha you were not using finite elements and CAD for stress-strain analyses 40 years ago. It is known that when thermal machines were invented in England, the science of thermodynamics had not yet been established. However, the Romans had a type of theodolite, an instrument used by surveyors today. Romans certainly had professional engineers, craftsmen, and knowledge of mathematics and design methods
I trained as an associate electrical engineer and worked in the field for many years, but never had the engineering method explained to me. With so much emphasis nowadays on data and science it escapes people (even us engineers) that these rules of thumb, as explained so well by Bill here, are at the core of the built world of ours. I sometimes find myself immobilized trying to build something in adherence to strict scientific principles, when all that is needed is to keep the end in mind and create the best change using the available resources. Practicality over (but not excluding) theory is at the heart of engineering.
@@engineerguyvideoI think there's some overlap with your explanation of the engineering method, and music. A person uses imagination and makes music and it sounds good (or not), and you continue to make music that sounds good based on all these factors like you explained in your magnetron video. But music can also be explained by harmonics and octaves and mathematic principles and etc. Music theory is the knowledge that a arch spanning 4m needs a 1m supporting wall. A song is a cathedral.
How the heck did that 12 minute video only take 2 minutes to watch?!? What a master at captivating an audience and explaining complex ideas so simply that even I can understand them! Bravo good sir.
That's kind of your to say (and much appreciated); we spend a lot of time working out the "structure" the "flow" of the video ... actually (and I mean this) use some insights from a creator of South Park!
The reason the Scientific Method is often pointed to to explain why the Engineering Method exists is because Science is literally just trying things and documenting results in the search of a pattern. The Engineering Method, meanwhile, takes known information and pieces them together into the most optimal configuration. One discovers stuff. The other makes that stuff useful. Mathematics meanwhile meshes perfectly into making sure the science and engineering can be more precise.
" and documenting results in the search of a pattern" - The pattern is key, it's the point at which science becomes useful. A big part of science is the development of theoretical models that help to explain the pattern, so that the theory can be used to make predictions. It's the predictions that set engineering apart from following well-established conventions.
reminds me of my spectroscopy professor explaining a componenet of a spectrometer being amazed at it "this piece of just shaped metal with mirrors magically allows us to capture and visualize quantum effects. It's just mirrors and bent metal. I could have never made this. Only engineers somehow do."
I disagree. Science is the search for a pattern derived from basic understanding of events. Engineering is deriving rules for action from trying ideas. Science is "this is why X happens" Engineering is "this is how you can make X happen". Science does not work with trial and error, science works by observing, making up a rule, and then testing it. Engineering works with trial and error, engineering works by testing things, observing, and then making up a rule.
As a structural engineer my mind is absolutely blown! I have always wondered how they were able to create those stunning pieces of architecture without highly complex math. Never heared any explanation on this topic in university either. Thank you very much for this enlightening insight!
Methods like this are still used in my field of carpentry evert day! It's pretty neat. I have to admit I have a hard time believing they had no math at all though. Or measuring tools- even if you don't have a standard Imperial foot across the Continent, you can still have a standardized foot across one jobsite.
I've won 1st place in my small class of into engineering, making a bridge, Point is I too noticed a golden ratio of perfect rational fractions like flash cards type, that made it simple=light & evenly loaded=compression& tension(pulling). In a basic bridge making site, which was the given HW site for the whole class.
The chicken egg is a marvel of nature, the principle of cupola, you can not break it by applying pressure on the longitudinal axis; the fiber of cobweb is stronger than steel!!!
Hey just a quick question of advice, a general answer is really all I'm hoping for but if you can elaborate a little further it'd be greatly appreciated, I'm a 20 year old high-school drop out working in an insulation plant and making just enough to get by and help my wife start and run an online business (she works part time as well) and while it's currently nowhere near possible, (assuming we start making a considerable amount more over the next few years) should I look into engineering as a career path? I have all of the aspects I hear are common of good engineers such as a strong natural curiousoty in the things in my daily life, machines (especially vehicles), man-made structures, good intuition, and a very good eye for figuring out the physics in all kinds of scenarios, ect. Sound great right? Except... I'm TERRIBLE at math. I'm very dismissive of my own abilities so I threw out the idea a long time ago but the more I seek out content like this the more it feels kind of like a calling. I feel like these days with any form of calculator at our fingertips I could make it pretty far but without one I'm dead in the water, and I feel like that would completely disqualify me in alot of fields and even schools. I'd like to think that raw skill or intellect in other areas could overcome this but like I mentioned, I don't have much faith in myself being too particularly special other than friends and family seeming to constantly reassure me that I'm very bright, that I just didn't "apply myself" when In reality my dropout was mostly just a lack of will to keep pushing as my parent's divorce was very disruptive to my mental health (sorry for the life story, just feel it appropriate for context) So yeah, is my mathematic weakness a valid reason to not pursue this career or is it possible that one could offset this?
Spent much of my youth studying math and science in college. I'm now an electrician. I didn't have a word for it until now, but adopting this Engineering Method was something of a hurdle for me at first. But now that I've ingrained it I'm faster, waste less, and have higher quality results. Sure, I can do the math to find the center of a room, but it's faster to simply snap chalk lines corner to corner (not to mention this naturally accounts for areas that are out of square). I can do all all kids of fancy trig and calculus, but it's always easier and less error prone to simply use rules of thumb or templates. Great video! glad to see you're making stuff again.
Well well ,you just enthralled a old granny with no knowledge of engineering , but with a curiosity about how they built the cathedrals , well past her bed time , I just subbed xx
I look at the world differently after watching your videos. The can engineering is one of my favorites, with every curve and angle purposely decided on. Helped me see that a lot of the design choices for other areas like construction or even bike design aren't just about asthetics and how something as simple as the shape can help strengthen or improve something.
I have been a fan subscribed and waiting for a video ever since the aluminum can episode, the way you teach has an almost asmr like aspect and its very thoughtful and full of information presented in a way thats not overwhelming kudos sir can’t wait
Thank you for posting such wonderful, informative and interesting content for so long! it's nice to see you posting after three years. Your videos started my interest in engineering and well... everything you've talked about! once again, thank you so much!
I can easily see this series being used in classrooms in the future, just like those classic informational videos from the 90s, and this is honestly amazing. Glad you're back!
I wonder about the process of developing one of these heuristics. Was it one person or dozens who were able to identify a possible solution to a problem and then refine that possible solution by successive approximation, until the result stopped improving. Did it happen quickly or over scores of years? What about the initial inspiration to try that type of solution to the problem. Fascinating. Thank you for this story.
It would be helpful if the presenter provided some references that explain now he knows that these techniques were actually used. As it stands, we have know idea how or if he knows that this was actually the method used by the cathedral's builders or if the presenter is merely guessing.
Yes!! One of the best presenters on TH-cam is back at it. I have loved your previous videos and even rewatched some of them. Tremendous respect for your fine-honed craft of teaching and explaining complex ideas in accessible ways.
I wasn't sure if I could care about how arches were designed hundreds of years ago when your video began. Then your demo of how an arch was drawn without math sold it. Thank you Bill and welcome back!
Thank you so much for making this video! I straddle the world between science and engineering and have had many times had arguments about "rules of thumb" with reference to my findings. After being sent to a quick start course on chemical engineering, I finally understood where my colleagues were coming from and how to explain where the intersection of science and engineering can be used to enhance both fields.
Wonderful. I always wanted to know how Gothic cathedrals were built. And clearly spoken with no background 'music' or sound effects which are the curse of most YT videos.
“I never worked out why, geometrically, that works- because it doesn’t matter” I love this a lot. You don’t have to understand why it works, you just have to know that it works. It’s the same reason you can be an electrician without being a quantum physicist
It's simply magic :) lol I think they just played with small models like you would with CAD & just proportionally expand it to what ever size you'd like. :)
You still need to verify that it works though with lots and lots of experiments. This is also how electricity was discovered before we knew about electrons and basic atomic theory: lots of experiments and writing down the results.
There are two types of bad engineers. 1. Those who waste time trying to come up with the technically perfect answer. 2. Those who blindly use their tools. 1 wastes time and money, 2 is dangerous. You need to understand what's in your toolbox, and what the limitations of each tool are before you use them. Good engineering is engineering plus risk management... "if I'm wrong which of these tools will make me wrong in a conservative or mitigatable manner "
What I think is beauty in engeenering is that a engeneer/theoric can deduct general rules and a engeneer/applied can create simple models. With this simple models the common electrician can work within a security margin with not deep knowledge
@@driatrogenesis quantum mechanics explains how electromagnetic fields behave and interact with matter, and why specific materials are better or worse at conducting electricity than other materials There are other fields that explain different aspects of the topic, but the point is that you don’t need to have absolute knowledge of a topic in order to apply it to the tasks at hand.
This video reminds me so much of my dad; he was a pattern maker for 25 years and has been a carpenter for most of his life. He knows a lot of math and trig, but only enough to get the job done. If there's a way to do something practically that "just works" he'll choose that method every time, but keeps his math skills in his back pocket for the situations where that's the better option. I remember him teaching me how to find the center of a circle once when we were making a mold for a circular foundation: he put a stake in the ground at one point on the circle with a rope that was the radius of the circle long tied to it and walked to the rough center and scratched an arc in the sand. He did that two more times at two other points on the circumference and told me that the point where the three lines intersected was the center. Blew my mind how quick and easy it was. Great video! Glad to see you back and can't wait to check out the book! :D
@@pedrobolsi8366 They weren’t particularly dark even in Western Europe, you didn’t have any cities on the same level as ancient Rome in terms of population, but by about the eighth century and especially during the high middle ages there was a enormous amount of art, music, philosophy, and of course, engineering coming out of Western Europe Most of it sponsored by the church, monks got up to some crazy stuff back then.
@allthenewsordeath5772 the splendor of Europe flourished during" the dark ages" the propaganda is against the Catholic church, Mother of Western culture!!!
A very informative video. The line "...to solve practical problem before we have full scientific knowledge." is the essence of engineering and engineers. Engineers make things happen in place of letting things happen. Sometimes the engineers need to learn about themselves to become better than before. Thank you for sharing.
Great video. Many cathedrals collapsed during their construction, so there was a lot of trial and painful error involved in developing these rules of thumb. As correctly stated, these methods provide a high likelihood of success ie. not absolute.
The collapses happened only when, out of a sense of emulation and rivalry with other cities, the builders and patrons of cathedral projects tried to reach heights not possible under the constraints of the gothic architecture then. See the fate of the Beauvais cathedral which was much more ambitious than the previous one.
@@BirdTurdMemes A lot of engineers don't build things. The construction is actually only one of many engineering tasks, from parts fabrication to repair.
I'm so grateful you're still making content! I seem to remember in one of the last videos, you showed your kid running around, so I know you've had alot on your plate, but it means so much to us to see you still sharing your love for learning with us! I've learned SO much from this channel, and dozens of times over the years, it's been the perfect recommendation to friends to explain a subject! The aluminum can and Nitinol videos are two I legitimately share and explain on a regular basis!
I was subscribed precisely so I wouldn't miss an upload in case it happened years later. The time has come, and it did not disappoint. The Engineer Guy hasn't missed a beat.
Excellent work, as usual. Your scripts and delivery are so effortless, belying the work and experience that you put into your videos. Carpentry and woodworking are, to this day, full of these shortcuts, which is of course your point! Learning these types of things and understanding their importance makes work flow. Cheers Bill!
The irony of you using the word "effortless". Look up the definition of the word "science" and prepare to be disappointed. It's pretty difficult to argue that they DIDN'T use science to some degree, once you are aware of the definition of the word "science". If he had put more effort into this video, he wouldn't have embarrassed himself.
Fabulous! I have used various rules of thumb taught to me by 'old guys' on job sites. Often they are 'tricks' or shortcuts in math that lend themselves to fine quality without some of the complexity that more formal methods utilize. In other words, sometimes there is a hack that produces equal quality at a significant savings in time... if it meets code it's good to go.
I believe part of the confusion between the scientific and the engineering method comes from the fact that in practice, these methods are often applied together by the same people. For example, let's say you test some equipment in a vacuum chamber. Some anomaly occurs in the test setup which cannot be readily explained. Opening up the chamber for analysis would destroy the vacuum and delay the tests by a week. The engineering method is used to mitigate the anomaly, allowing the tests to proceed quickly. To prevent the anomaly from occurring in the future, the scientific method is used afterwards in a thorough root cause analysis. Even though this may not be "new science" as such, it is still the scientific method, because the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the system than was deemed necessary before.
Oh I love geometry. You can do amazing things with just a ruler and a compass (or if you want to go all the way to the basics really just a piece of string and lines in the sand) I'm currently studying to become a master carpenter and here in germany we still learn those old methods in addition to more "modern" ones like trigonometry and also CAD. It's really a journey through mathematics from antiquity to modern times. Quite fascinating when you can appreciate it.
@SovereignStorm- best of luck in your study of carpentry. I’ve found it to be an interesting and satisfying craft. Have you followed the progress of the rebuilding of Notre Dame ? A really cool project there.
@@fellspoint9364 thank you. I haven't actually followed Notre Dame. But bow that you've mentioned it I think I will. Don't know why I didn't. It seems quite obvious now 😅
Good to see you back Bill, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have for us. I always found your videos interesting and your clear concise presentation makes them all the more watchable.
9:50 The size of the wall is 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle. First of all the explanation of measurements using the threads is fantastic. Thank you! In my language, Bengali and many other Indian languages, carpenters are called "SutraDhar", which literally translates to "thread holder", they used thread and different folds of threads to determine the sizes. Now details about the claim "The size of the wall is 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle." - Dividing the semicircle in 3rds is creating points for a hexagon, if it would have been a complete circle. - The length of each edge of a hexagon is same as the radius of the enclosing circle. - If the size of the span is D, then the radius of will be D/2, lets call it "r" - We can observe that there is a right angled triangle getting formed by the extended line segment, the width of the wall and the inner side of the wall ⊿ - We know that the inner angle of a Hexagon is 120˚, the base of the right angled triangle, i.e. the width of the wall is dividing the 120˚ in half, making it 60˚ - Using trigonometry; the width of the wall / the extended line segment = cos 60˚ - Thus the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x the extended line segment - Since The length the extended line segment = r (edge of a hexagon) - the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x r - We know that r is half of the size of the span, i.e D/2 - Thus the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x D/2 - Since cos 60˚ is 1/2 - the width of the wall = 1/2 x D/2 = D/4, 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle. Not sure if this is useful, but I found it intriguing.
I started watching your videos in HS and you inspired me to pursue architecture and in a few days I’m about to graduate with my masters in architecture. Good timing.
Hi Bill, I’ve been watching your videos since I was a kid and theyve always been equally fascinating and inspiring. Im now majoring in electrical engineering at nyu, and i couldnt be happier. Thank you for sparking my curiosity for engineering, and for continuing to make fantastic content after all this time ✌️
One of the senior guys at the first engineering office I worked at had this framed on his wall: "Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not fully understand, into shapes we can not precisely define, to withstand forces we can not completely assess, in such a manner that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance". Thank you for the video, and thank you for explaining the fundamentals of the Engineering Method. This is something that for all of our talk about "science" in popular culture these days, too few understand.
I don't want that senior guy building a bridge I will step on. Engineering is not the art of hiding your own ignorance from the public. On the contrary it's the art of showing the public you put enough safety margin to cover for the things you don't understand and keep them safe.
Hey Bill, great video. Back in grad school, I TA'd a course about practical experimentation to third-year engineering students. One thing we focused on was the importance of making definite statements even in the presence of uncertainty. I'm really looking forward to the next video, I'm sure it'll be fascinating.
Hi EngineerGuy. Note that Euclid wrote his great treatise on geometry, which was more advanced than the stone and concrete pillar problems, hundreds of years before the Pantheon was designed, and more than a thousand years before the European cathedrals. Whether certain designers knew the actual source of their procedures, geometers and architectural experimentalists guided their decisions, however indirectly. As for the working masons, then as now, construction workers rarely have any idea how much mathematics and science and engineering goes into a building. Cheers.
Good insights. This video fails to explain how the rules that the masons followed were derived. I don't think it was purely trial and error; that would be a dangerous and expensive process with actual stone buildings. Advanced geometry goes back at least to the ancient Egyptians, who needed it to build the pyramids, as well as to build the irrigation systems for their crop fields.
Interesting talk and I really like how you could effectively show the beautiful structure of the cathedral ( I didn't fully realize that they were effectively all glass walls on all sides from the engineering point of view)
Another outstanding, fascinating, and compelling video! Thank you! So fascinating that the engineering method doesnt require what we know as "science"!
You are back and im very thankful for this, engineering is so damned interesting when someone who knows can explain it. I didnt have a single clue about this prior to watching the video, so thank you so much!
Currently procrastinating on my space systems engineering class and find it funny how, even though I am determining design choices analytically, the many equations being used still have a strong heuristic aspect to them. Aerospace engineering is a very, very young field after all, so its not surprising that a lot of what I am doing still boils down to very powerful "rule of thumb" equations. I was very happy to see this in my feed. Your influence stretches far beyond what you can possibly know.
The legend returns! I'm stoked to see the next video. The method of laying out the width of the walls with the rope that you explain here reminds me of so many little tricks that I learned when I trained as a draftsman.
Indeed ... very much related ... I'd guess that this Medieval engineering has more in common with drafting than with structures as taught in civil engineering today!
I mean, it is, or at least nowadays is. Whether or not it always was depends on how you define science. If you define science as the discovery of knowledge, then all these ancient engineers were still applying science, as somebody had to first discover that knowledge.
Sure, but if the definition involves a fundamental understanding than engineers are not applying science. I would not on this day and age call observation of a phenomena “science.” That said, the real point here is this: The notion that detailed scientific understands occurs, THEN engineers apply it - with the word ‘apply’ not thought out, but containing the implication of ‘merely’ apply - is surely wrong.”
It's not a bad definition, but I'd say it is incomplete. More accurate to say that science and maths are tools in the engineers toolbox that can be used to solve the problem. But then so are things like "rule of thumb" and "accepted precedent", and "if all else fails, make it thicker". Engineering USES science, but existed before it, as the examples given illustrate.
I love how this video explicates the gap between know-how and scientific theory. I happen to love learning about science, math, and other theoretical frameworks, but we're doing ourselves a disservice by confusing the aims of theory (explanatory models) and engineering (building better things). These things definitely interact in interesting ways, but they should be seen as different.
How I've missed seeing your content, Bill. Thank you for your time! I'm so grateful for you, your wisdom, knowledge, and critcally, your desire to share it us. Truly cannot thank you enough.
I discovered this channel yesterday. I wish it would have been earlier, this is fantastic content, and ahhh, the diction, voice, tone and eloquence of @engineerguy is delightful. Thank you, my best wishes from Colombia, I'll get up to date and will look forward for more content. P.d. The video about soda cans is also very good.
I’ve worked in the construction industry for almost twenty years, and I can tell you that this method is used all the time. Builders often ignore the drawings/specifications in favor of their tried & true rules of thumb. Of course, they don’t tell any of the Engineers this.
It's so great to have your content again. Your calm and concise teaching method is wonderful. Thank you for always making me feel the joy and wonder of my profession.
@6:25 well by stating that the builders needed to stay between a certain ratio (1/4 or 1/5), then they had to use mathematics or an intuitive sense of mathematics to build the arches. Stating that engineering doesn't require science or math I think is incorrect, because science & math are not just what we learn in school with numbers but rather a way of thinking & reasoning.
This is what should have been shown on history channel instead of ancient aliens, an entire generation wouldn't have been fooled into ridiculous pseudoscientific nonsense
@@Derederi I think you missed the point. And whether there are or not the history channel does not care and will not be responsible for discovery. They sold out to network shareholders and betrayed their audience. They should be providing real historical and educational programs like they once did.
Very interesting. I wish I'd seen this 5 days ago. Mainly as I would like to have asked how you feel this applies, or not, in the later Gothic cathedrals. Where the ever increasing heights involved and the desire for lace like clerestories required thinning walls and external buttressing. Funnily enough I hadn't come across this one before and have now added it to my mental collection. As a stonemason I never tire of things that can be done with compass, straight edge and a bit of string! Thank you.
Your aluminum can video remains perhaps my favourite example of serious, informed, but fun and engaging explanation in a medium (TH-cam) susceptible to being quite the opposite. You really set a standard, and this new series is very exciting to me.
this building method was science. It was tried and tested and withstood time. They used the science of the gothic building method to erect the biggest structures of the medieval ages.
Exactly so, trial and error, the essence of the scientific method. And lots of them fell down and had to be rebuilt either more strongly or on a different principle, as at Ely.
Thank you, it had to be said. Suggesting that the masons didn't know Mathematics is just lack of knowledge of how mathematics looked in middle ages. It was all constructions. Copernicus calculated orbits by drawing crazy pictures and constructing relationships between lengths. Those masons knew their maths very well, it's us who are not familiar with their language.
Sorry sir but have you ever painted a painting or learned how to play an instrument? There is a lot of trial and error and one could argue making cathedrals is like making a giant sculpture. Would you say these things are “sciences”..? The definition of science is very clearly defined in the scientific method, and this is not science it is art.
@@colossusjak2 Go research the gothic construction method and tell me that wasn't "science" It is the very method used by the episopals in their national cathedral. Thousands of tons of concrete sit in within the roof of that building to hold it together. That is not merely art.
@EJP286CRSKW Trial and error is not the essence of the scientific method in any meaningful sense. It's the essence of learning of all kinds. You cannot simply claim that something is science because it requires trial and error.
Nice video. But to be fair you should also talk about places like Beauvais Cathedral. Who (partially) collapsed after building and has structural problems to this day. Because every rule of thumb is learned by dozen of painful lessons.
Very cool. Living near the great Cathedral of Cologne in Germany, I often marvel at how they could possibly construct such enormous and complex structures without modern technology. And the vision and dedication of the people, who devised and built it, is as awe inspiring, as the building itself.
This video taught me something I didn't even know I didn't know! Afterwards, I followed a link to a National Geographic video about Brunelleschi's dome on the Florence cathedral. It was especially fascinating to watch in the light of this video. To begin with, the octangular base (already built before Brunelleschi was tasked with the dome) was so imperfect, that it lacked an accurate center point!
Wow, the insights from this video changed the course of the study I am writing. Using machine learning to scan old temples and cathedrals, I was looking for the method the ancients used to transmit formulas for ratios. I need to also scan for the physical methods used to calculate the building and boat construction measures. This video is worth every second of the time I spent watching it!
I'm glad to see this viewpoint. In school I learned that Calculus was used to design architecture. Maybe it was used in only analysis, not design. Your video highlights the difference between carpenters, plumbers, electricians and their modern day engineer equivalents. Skilled tradesmen can accomplish amazing work through experience with or without mathematics
The scope of it is insanely limited though. For building things that we do today, it is necessary to have a predictive approach. Also, this video doesn't point out something important and lost itself in survivor bias. Thousands of churches and buildings fell like a house of cards. The precision we can achieve today is unparallel.
This video has given me some food for thought. I don't think I've ever heard the engineering method articulated that way. Also, glad to see more videos are coming. Are you planning a series and then another break or ongoing videos?
No because it lost its original purpose of being something as a house of God. It has now become about profiteering, getting the most out of a structure financially with the most limited number of resources possible. It has nothing to do with passion anymore.
I’m so happy to see you back, my friend. You have influenced me a lot. I was very sad when you stopped posting for a long time. I was one of your first followers. I remember watching the IBM printer video when I was 16. That was more than 10 years ago. Welcome back, buddy.
3:00 "constructed by a team who had never learned basic arithmetic" Surviving contracts from those times show that they were entirely competent at calculating quantities and prices.
Hey Bill have you ever made a video of how the staind glass masters made those fantastical custom colors for the cathedrals windows of old? I heard it was so dangerous but read it was a combination of chemistry, and engineering that always fascinated me. Kinda like a master chef. Anyway let me know if you ever get time. Thank you once again for all your work!
Mostly agreed, but… doing geometric construction IS knowing geometry AND doing calculations. Granted, it may not be based on exact scientific theory, but, on the other hand, what exactly is scientific theory? What is often misunderstood is that geometry IS a method of doing calculations but in a language other than the language of numbers.
Came to watch this video purely by accident, and was stunned by the beauty and cleareness of the presentation, the calm tone and the overall quality of this video. Subscribed, and can't wait to dig in your archive of probably very interesting videos. Thank you!
Much as I love the channel and content, have to disagree with 1:50 , you could find an equi-triangle by throwing a handful of rice on the floor. Cant get more random than that.
When the Turks conquered Anatolia they didn’t wipe out everybody. They mixed heavily with the local population, and many people converted to Islam. Many of the people who built these structures share DNA with the current Turkish population.
@@gj1234567899999 Even if what you say is true, that has nothing to do with what I said. And the way the Turks "mixed" with local populations was through rape, in most cases.
This reminds me of a rule of tumb from Vitruvius. Problem: How thick must be the stone above the door. You measure the distance of support with elbows and make the thickness in hands. You can use the same principal for wood but instead of hands, you use fingers. For example my door measures 2 elbows cca 75 cm, stone must be 2 hands thick cca 14 cm. The ommition of this rule is sometimes seen by museum "proffesionals". The collum that has stood undamaged for 2 tousand years, is laid horizontaly for protection, suddenly breaks, because of inpropper support.
@@bloodyhell8201 it has bene almost two decades since I learned English in school and no real proffesional need to write anything english since. Please enjoy my inperfections, im striving to make less of them 😉
You are a humble Engineering Guru! I learned of Gobekli Tepe while searching TH-cam videos on Peru's historical stone constructions. Aliens and other magical thinking explanations abound to explain ancient constructions yet this one 10 minute video has simply explained everything. Thank you.
In the scientific method, you disprove items until you are left with a predictable model. How is what the stone masons did different? Thank you! I love learning 😊. UPDATE... I think I need to be more patient lol. I watch the rest of the videos and now it makes sense! As usual. Amazing videos! Thanks again! 😊😊
The scientific method is about isolating variables, uncovering correlations and causations, and eventually creating predictive models. Mendeleev used scientific principles to figure out the melting point of elements that hadn't yet even been discovered.
I'm a mechanical engineer working in a cutting edge industry. we've even set numerous world records and world firsts with our designs. We use TONS of rules of thumb to design our solutions every single day, and I can explain why too. It just takes a while.
@@engineerguyvideo yes it does, and I love it. Too many engineers over rly on pure math, without understanding its limitations and pitfalls. Sometimes math is the right answer, other times it's not.
No mention of my guild huh? You clearly don’t understand we ARE engineering and science. Compagnons have been practicing descriptive geometry metallurgy and mortar chemistry since the times of pepin the short. You’re just not initiated because you’ve never trained or built anything worthy of god.
This knowledge should be taught to all non-engineering professionals. I never thought I would be so interested in a topic about engineering. Awesome content!
I'm so freaking hyped that you're making new content. I'm glad you are doing well.
Many of us owe you a lot
I'm in my mid-30s now....and when I started watching your stuff ... Back when you first started making videos...I had followed a path of strictly woodworking and being in business for myself dealing antique instruments. Always hated and avoided a lot of engineering things especially electronics and such.
But somehow fell backwards into systems engineering specializing in metrology equipment troubleshooting and repair. And your content was a huge part in making me see the world that way and find those things interesting. A huge part
Thank you for telling me this!
Not used to seeing "content" used positively, it's always seemed like a negative word. I guess words change
You said what I came to say!
@@whoccc agreed. I try using it more positively when I can. But it's rare. Content has turned into something to be quickly packaged up and sold on to viewers.... With little or no thought put in. Which obviously isn't the case here.
The type of stuff mr. Bill has put out over the years... Grabbed a lot of folks attention and drove them into a totally new direction in academia and beyond.
Very few if any creators have had a similar effect on me and people I know. Maybe folks like mr. Carlson's lab, maybe some of Tom Scott's stuff. AvE....ect. hell I even know a few guys that got into electrical engineering.... straight up because of big Clive and his videos and talks about his experience getting into electrical engineering work. Same with "diode gone wild."
So many difficult and negative things online. So it really makes it special when somebody like Bill comes along. The shining Star in a sea of darkness and filth.
Edit (no judgment.....I enjoy the filth just as much as the next guy from time to time.....🤘 But every now and then we need to clear motivation and guiding light)
I showed the Engineering of the aluminum can to my gf yesterday, she was completely surprised and amazed by how complex and ingenious it all actually is. Bill is just amazing at what he does. I am so happy these videos are exist. Thank you Bill!
The enlightened one has returned
Praise be!
I'm so glad that he's returned. 🎉
Hallelujah
As it was foretold
A glorious day!
This is near to my heart, for many years I was a pipe organ builder, and methods like this were used to build those fantastically effective and sophisticated devices before we had any deep scientific understanding of the fluid dynamics and acoustic science and mechanical disciplines which underpin them. Centuries of refinement of the rules of thumb in organ building honed them to such degree that most of them have gone right on being used as the standards even as the scientific and analytical tools have became ubiquitous. Thanks so much for this!
wow, you should make some videos, tell us more about the workings of pipe organs.
Pipe organ videos FTW!
You should take a look @lookmomnocomputer. He's rebuilding one...
VanHelsing - I absolutely love lookmumnocomputer, but that energy is so much different from this lol
@@toomdoglol, imagine Bill and Sam doing a crossover episode? I think that would be amazing.
I am a practicing structural engineer, in continuous practice 40 years since I graduated from a prestigious university.
For years I’ve been interested in the design of arches, but nearly every reference or text I’ve seen used modern beam theory to explain how to design one. When these great structures were constructed, there was no ‘beam theory’, or the calculus used to find solutions to design problems using it.
Yet those medieval structures stand, for millennia in some cases.
Thank you for starting to describe the methods used by those very early masons and designers. It is very valuable, at least to this engineer.
Your new learnt knowledge will be wasted. What a very sad thing.
His claims are bullshit.
@@hans-joachimbierwirth4727
Wdym?
It's all a grand conspiracy and these buildings were built using advanced mathematics?
Or are you saying these cathedrals aren't as old as we're told and bound to collapse soon?
Even for you, I betcha you were not using finite elements and CAD for stress-strain analyses 40 years ago. It is known that when thermal machines were invented in England, the science of thermodynamics had not yet been established. However, the Romans had a type of theodolite, an instrument used by surveyors today. Romans certainly had professional engineers, craftsmen, and knowledge of mathematics and design methods
Describing those methods in the title as nor science, nor math is ... by what we call by modern standards, a lie
I trained as an associate electrical engineer and worked in the field for many years, but never had the engineering method explained to me. With so much emphasis nowadays on data and science it escapes people (even us engineers) that these rules of thumb, as explained so well by Bill here, are at the core of the built world of ours. I sometimes find myself immobilized trying to build something in adherence to strict scientific principles, when all that is needed is to keep the end in mind and create the best change using the available resources. Practicality over (but not excluding) theory is at the heart of engineering.
"I can't explain it, but it works." -Glenn Gould
@CatFish107 I am not much of a music person, but I love Glenn Gould … perhaps this is why.
@@engineerguyvideoI think there's some overlap with your explanation of the engineering method, and music.
A person uses imagination and makes music and it sounds good (or not), and you continue to make music that sounds good based on all these factors like you explained in your magnetron video. But music can also be explained by harmonics and octaves and mathematic principles and etc.
Music theory is the knowledge that a arch spanning 4m needs a 1m supporting wall. A song is a cathedral.
Normal folk! see things a they are! No longer allowed! Plebs will get beyond themselves.
How the heck did that 12 minute video only take 2 minutes to watch?!? What a master at captivating an audience and explaining complex ideas so simply that even I can understand them! Bravo good sir.
That's kind of your to say (and much appreciated); we spend a lot of time working out the "structure" the "flow" of the video ... actually (and I mean this) use some insights from a creator of South Park!
@@engineerguyvideo Well the time spent is clearly paying off. And south park, while crude on the surface, is actually one of the smartest shows on TV.
@engineerguy
I am liking the south park style illustration:)
6x speed
@@k90v85 LOL!!!
The reason the Scientific Method is often pointed to to explain why the Engineering Method exists is because Science is literally just trying things and documenting results in the search of a pattern.
The Engineering Method, meanwhile, takes known information and pieces them together into the most optimal configuration.
One discovers stuff. The other makes that stuff useful.
Mathematics meanwhile meshes perfectly into making sure the science and engineering can be more precise.
Also reappliable. Mathematics is very good at helping us map solutions and findings from one field onto another field of scientific study.
" and documenting results in the search of a pattern" - The pattern is key, it's the point at which science becomes useful. A big part of science is the development of theoretical models that help to explain the pattern, so that the theory can be used to make predictions. It's the predictions that set engineering apart from following well-established conventions.
reminds me of my spectroscopy professor explaining a componenet of a spectrometer being amazed at it "this piece of just shaped metal with mirrors magically allows us to capture and visualize quantum effects. It's just mirrors and bent metal. I could have never made this. Only engineers somehow do."
I disagree. Science is the search for a pattern derived from basic understanding of events. Engineering is deriving rules for action from trying ideas.
Science is "this is why X happens" Engineering is "this is how you can make X happen".
Science does not work with trial and error, science works by observing, making up a rule, and then testing it.
Engineering works with trial and error, engineering works by testing things, observing, and then making up a rule.
Just another way of saying f*ck around and find out
As a structural engineer my mind is absolutely blown! I have always wondered how they were able to create those stunning pieces of architecture without highly complex math. Never heared any explanation on this topic in university either. Thank you very much for this enlightening insight!
Methods like this are still used in my field of carpentry evert day! It's pretty neat. I have to admit I have a hard time believing they had no math at all though. Or measuring tools- even if you don't have a standard Imperial foot across the Continent, you can still have a standardized foot across one jobsite.
I've won 1st place in my small class of into engineering, making a bridge,
Point is
I too noticed a golden ratio of perfect rational fractions like flash cards type, that made it simple=light & evenly loaded=compression& tension(pulling). In a basic bridge making site, which was the given HW site for the whole class.
The chicken egg is a marvel of nature, the principle of cupola, you can not break it by applying pressure on the longitudinal axis; the fiber of cobweb is stronger than steel!!!
Ever heard of Islamic golden age? The arch looks like from Ibn Tulun Mosque.
Hey just a quick question of advice, a general answer is really all I'm hoping for but if you can elaborate a little further it'd be greatly appreciated, I'm a 20 year old high-school drop out working in an insulation plant and making just enough to get by and help my wife start and run an online business (she works part time as well) and while it's currently nowhere near possible, (assuming we start making a considerable amount more over the next few years) should I look into engineering as a career path? I have all of the aspects I hear are common of good engineers such as a strong natural curiousoty in the things in my daily life, machines (especially vehicles), man-made structures, good intuition, and a very good eye for figuring out the physics in all kinds of scenarios, ect. Sound great right? Except... I'm TERRIBLE at math. I'm very dismissive of my own abilities so I threw out the idea a long time ago but the more I seek out content like this the more it feels kind of like a calling. I feel like these days with any form of calculator at our fingertips I could make it pretty far but without one I'm dead in the water, and I feel like that would completely disqualify me in alot of fields and even schools. I'd like to think that raw skill or intellect in other areas could overcome this but like I mentioned, I don't have much faith in myself being too particularly special other than friends and family seeming to constantly reassure me that I'm very bright, that I just didn't "apply myself" when In reality my dropout was mostly just a lack of will to keep pushing as my parent's divorce was very disruptive to my mental health (sorry for the life story, just feel it appropriate for context) So yeah, is my mathematic weakness a valid reason to not pursue this career or is it possible that one could offset this?
Spent much of my youth studying math and science in college. I'm now an electrician. I didn't have a word for it until now, but adopting this Engineering Method was something of a hurdle for me at first. But now that I've ingrained it I'm faster, waste less, and have higher quality results. Sure, I can do the math to find the center of a room, but it's faster to simply snap chalk lines corner to corner (not to mention this naturally accounts for areas that are out of square). I can do all all kids of fancy trig and calculus, but it's always easier and less error prone to simply use rules of thumb or templates.
Great video! glad to see you're making stuff again.
Well well ,you just enthralled a old granny with no knowledge of engineering , but with a curiosity about how they built the cathedrals , well past her bed time , I just subbed xx
I look at the world differently after watching your videos. The can engineering is one of my favorites, with every curve and angle purposely decided on. Helped me see that a lot of the design choices for other areas like construction or even bike design aren't just about asthetics and how something as simple as the shape can help strengthen or improve something.
I have been a fan subscribed and waiting for a video ever since the aluminum can episode, the way you teach has an almost asmr like aspect and its very thoughtful and full of information presented in a way thats not overwhelming kudos sir can’t wait
Thank you ... I hope this meets that standard ...
Lol same, almost 2 years ago now.
I cannot even begin to express how ecstatic I am that the engineer guy has made a return. This man is surely the definition of quality over quantity
@@engineerguyvideoyou are the standard
Thank you for posting such wonderful, informative and interesting content for so long! it's nice to see you posting after three years. Your videos started my interest in engineering and well... everything you've talked about! once again, thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing this! Much appreciated.
I can easily see this series being used in classrooms in the future, just like those classic informational videos from the 90s, and this is honestly amazing. Glad you're back!
I wonder about the process of developing one of these heuristics. Was it one person or dozens who were able to identify a possible solution to a problem and then refine that possible solution by successive approximation, until the result stopped improving. Did it happen quickly or over scores of years? What about the initial inspiration to try that type of solution to the problem. Fascinating. Thank you for this story.
Worst case: ask the same question about the creation of human beings . . .
@@QED_creation lmao
It would be helpful if the presenter provided some references that explain now he knows that these techniques were actually used. As it stands, we have know idea how or if he knows that this was actually the method used by the cathedral's builders or if the presenter is merely guessing.
@rustyshimstock8653 The book contains the references …. This is a companion video to the book …
Well, then the book is as misleading as the video is. You clearly don't know what you're talking about. @@engineerguyvideo
Yes!! One of the best presenters on TH-cam is back at it. I have loved your previous videos and even rewatched some of them. Tremendous respect for your fine-honed craft of teaching and explaining complex ideas in accessible ways.
I wasn't sure if I could care about how arches were designed hundreds of years ago when your video began. Then your demo of how an arch was drawn without math sold it. Thank you Bill and welcome back!
When I learned that I was stunned ... to turn a mathematical operation into an action.
You never learned that. You pulled it out of your lazy ass. It is 100% stupid bullshit!@@engineerguyvideo
Grateful that youve decided to upload new content!
I realize that IRL takes priority but when i say "Thanks for coming back!" I speak for many. 😉
Creating this videos is important part of what I like to do ... the pandemic shut everything down ... happy to be back.
@@engineerguyvideo happy to have you back!
Thank you so much for making this video! I straddle the world between science and engineering and have had many times had arguments about "rules of thumb" with reference to my findings. After being sent to a quick start course on chemical engineering, I finally understood where my colleagues were coming from and how to explain where the intersection of science and engineering can be used to enhance both fields.
Rules of thumb were not used for cathedrals, and no one ever built walls that thick. This video is full of stupid bullshit.
Wonderful. I always wanted to know how Gothic cathedrals were built. And clearly spoken with no background 'music' or sound effects which are the curse of most YT videos.
“I never worked out why, geometrically, that works- because it doesn’t matter”
I love this a lot. You don’t have to understand why it works, you just have to know that it works. It’s the same reason you can be an electrician without being a quantum physicist
It's simply magic :)
lol
I think they just played with small models like you would with CAD & just proportionally expand it to what ever size you'd like. :)
You still need to verify that it works though with lots and lots of experiments. This is also how electricity was discovered before we knew about electrons and basic atomic theory: lots of experiments and writing down the results.
There are two types of bad engineers.
1. Those who waste time trying to come up with the technically perfect answer.
2. Those who blindly use their tools.
1 wastes time and money, 2 is dangerous.
You need to understand what's in your toolbox, and what the limitations of each tool are before you use them. Good engineering is engineering plus risk management... "if I'm wrong which of these tools will make me wrong in a conservative or mitigatable manner "
What I think is beauty in engeenering is that a engeneer/theoric can deduct general rules and a engeneer/applied can create simple models. With this simple models the common electrician can work within a security margin with not deep knowledge
@@driatrogenesis quantum mechanics explains how electromagnetic fields behave and interact with matter, and why specific materials are better or worse at conducting electricity than other materials
There are other fields that explain different aspects of the topic, but the point is that you don’t need to have absolute knowledge of a topic in order to apply it to the tasks at hand.
This video reminds me so much of my dad; he was a pattern maker for 25 years and has been a carpenter for most of his life. He knows a lot of math and trig, but only enough to get the job done. If there's a way to do something practically that "just works" he'll choose that method every time, but keeps his math skills in his back pocket for the situations where that's the better option.
I remember him teaching me how to find the center of a circle once when we were making a mold for a circular foundation: he put a stake in the ground at one point on the circle with a rope that was the radius of the circle long tied to it and walked to the rough center and scratched an arc in the sand. He did that two more times at two other points on the circumference and told me that the point where the three lines intersected was the center. Blew my mind how quick and easy it was. Great video! Glad to see you back and can't wait to check out the book! :D
Not only that, the mediaeval cathedrals were/are acoustic marvels as well as visual masterpieces. Amazing stuff.
That's also a really great point, i wonder if it gave it more bass, & likely reverb. :)
Catholic Church science
"Dark ages" produced the most beautiful structures made by man
@@pedrobolsi8366
They weren’t particularly dark even in Western Europe, you didn’t have any cities on the same level as ancient Rome in terms of population, but by about the eighth century and especially during the high middle ages there was a enormous amount of art, music, philosophy, and of course, engineering coming out of Western Europe Most of it sponsored by the church, monks got up to some crazy stuff back then.
@allthenewsordeath5772 the splendor of Europe flourished during" the dark ages" the propaganda is against the Catholic church, Mother of Western culture!!!
A very informative video. The line "...to solve practical problem before we have full scientific knowledge." is the essence of engineering and engineers. Engineers make things happen in place of letting things happen. Sometimes the engineers need to learn about themselves to become better than before. Thank you for sharing.
Great video. Many cathedrals collapsed during their construction, so there was a lot of trial and painful error involved in developing these rules of thumb. As correctly stated, these methods provide a high likelihood of success ie. not absolute.
The collapses happened only when, out of a sense of emulation and rivalry with other cities, the builders and patrons of cathedral projects tried to reach heights not possible under the constraints of the gothic architecture then. See the fate of the Beauvais cathedral which was much more ambitious than the previous one.
Great to have you back, Bill. I'm not an engineer. I have just always loved learning about how things work and how they're built
That MAKES you an engineer.
That makes you more of an engineer that just does it cuz they have to, you're doing homework for fun RN, instead of having to be told to so!!!!!!
@@SoloPilot6
Not if you don't build things
@@BirdTurdMemes A lot of engineers don't build things. The construction is actually only one of many engineering tasks, from parts fabrication to repair.
I'm so grateful you're still making content!
I seem to remember in one of the last videos, you showed your kid running around, so I know you've had alot on your plate, but it means so much to us to see you still sharing your love for learning with us! I've learned SO much from this channel, and dozens of times over the years, it's been the perfect recommendation to friends to explain a subject! The aluminum can and Nitinol videos are two I legitimately share and explain on a regular basis!
I was subscribed precisely so I wouldn't miss an upload in case it happened years later. The time has come, and it did not disappoint. The Engineer Guy hasn't missed a beat.
Many lives were lost in the trial and error methods used to discover what worked.
Yeah! So glad you’re making videos again. Wonderful channel.
When I tell people about this channel I've been having to add "...but he doesn't seem to post videos anymore" -- SO glad to see you're back!
Excellent work, as usual. Your scripts and delivery are so effortless, belying the work and experience that you put into your videos. Carpentry and woodworking are, to this day, full of these shortcuts, which is of course your point! Learning these types of things and understanding their importance makes work flow. Cheers Bill!
The irony of you using the word "effortless". Look up the definition of the word "science" and prepare to be disappointed. It's pretty difficult to argue that they DIDN'T use science to some degree, once you are aware of the definition of the word "science". If he had put more effort into this video, he wouldn't have embarrassed himself.
Fabulous! I have used various rules of thumb taught to me by 'old guys' on job sites. Often they are 'tricks' or shortcuts in math that lend themselves to fine quality without some of the complexity that more formal methods utilize. In other words, sometimes there is a hack that produces equal quality at a significant savings in time... if it meets code it's good to go.
I believe part of the confusion between the scientific and the engineering method comes from the fact that in practice, these methods are often applied together by the same people. For example, let's say you test some equipment in a vacuum chamber. Some anomaly occurs in the test setup which cannot be readily explained. Opening up the chamber for analysis would destroy the vacuum and delay the tests by a week. The engineering method is used to mitigate the anomaly, allowing the tests to proceed quickly. To prevent the anomaly from occurring in the future, the scientific method is used afterwards in a thorough root cause analysis. Even though this may not be "new science" as such, it is still the scientific method, because the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the system than was deemed necessary before.
Absolutely excellent, the use of models was brilliant. look forward the your future videos.
As always: it's a pleasure to watch and learn. You have been missed sir.
Oh I love geometry. You can do amazing things with just a ruler and a compass (or if you want to go all the way to the basics really just a piece of string and lines in the sand) I'm currently studying to become a master carpenter and here in germany we still learn those old methods in addition to more "modern" ones like trigonometry and also CAD. It's really a journey through mathematics from antiquity to modern times. Quite fascinating when you can appreciate it.
✨Stereotomy✨
@SovereignStorm- best of luck in your study of carpentry. I’ve found it to be an interesting and satisfying craft. Have you followed the progress of the rebuilding of Notre Dame ? A really cool project there.
@@fellspoint9364 thank you. I haven't actually followed Notre Dame. But bow that you've mentioned it I think I will. Don't know why I didn't. It seems quite obvious now 😅
Honestly I consider geometry the analog form of mathematics.
Good to see you back Bill, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you have for us. I always found your videos interesting and your clear concise presentation makes them all the more watchable.
9:50 The size of the wall is 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle.
First of all the explanation of measurements using the threads is fantastic. Thank you!
In my language, Bengali and many other Indian languages, carpenters are called "SutraDhar", which literally translates to "thread holder", they used thread and different folds of threads to determine the sizes.
Now details about the claim "The size of the wall is 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle."
- Dividing the semicircle in 3rds is creating points for a hexagon, if it would have been a complete circle.
- The length of each edge of a hexagon is same as the radius of the enclosing circle.
- If the size of the span is D, then the radius of will be D/2, lets call it "r"
- We can observe that there is a right angled triangle getting formed by the extended line segment, the width of the wall and the inner side of the wall ⊿
- We know that the inner angle of a Hexagon is 120˚, the base of the right angled triangle, i.e. the width of the wall is dividing the 120˚ in half, making it 60˚
- Using trigonometry; the width of the wall / the extended line segment = cos 60˚
- Thus the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x the extended line segment
- Since The length the extended line segment = r (edge of a hexagon)
- the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x r
- We know that r is half of the size of the span, i.e D/2
- Thus the width of the wall = cos 60˚ x D/2
- Since cos 60˚ is 1/2
- the width of the wall = 1/2 x D/2 = D/4, 1/4th the size of the span of the semicircle.
Not sure if this is useful, but I found it intriguing.
I started watching your videos in HS and you inspired me to pursue architecture and in a few days I’m about to graduate with my masters in architecture. Good timing.
Hi Bill, I’ve been watching your videos since I was a kid and theyve always been equally fascinating and inspiring. Im now majoring in electrical engineering at nyu, and i couldnt be happier. Thank you for sparking my curiosity for engineering, and for continuing to make fantastic content after all this time ✌️
I see what you did there 😉
One of the senior guys at the first engineering office I worked at had this framed on his wall: "Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not fully understand, into shapes we can not precisely define, to withstand forces we can not completely assess, in such a manner that the public at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance".
Thank you for the video, and thank you for explaining the fundamentals of the Engineering Method. This is something that for all of our talk about "science" in popular culture these days, too few understand.
I don't want that senior guy building a bridge I will step on. Engineering is not the art of hiding your own ignorance from the public. On the contrary it's the art of showing the public you put enough safety margin to cover for the things you don't understand and keep them safe.
Hey Bill, great video. Back in grad school, I TA'd a course about practical experimentation to third-year engineering students. One thing we focused on was the importance of making definite statements even in the presence of uncertainty. I'm really looking forward to the next video, I'm sure it'll be fascinating.
That sounds like a class I wish I had taken
Hi EngineerGuy. Note that Euclid wrote his great treatise on geometry, which was more advanced than the stone and concrete pillar problems, hundreds of years before the Pantheon was designed, and more than a thousand years before the European cathedrals. Whether certain designers knew the actual source of their procedures, geometers and architectural experimentalists guided their decisions, however indirectly. As for the working masons, then as now, construction workers rarely have any idea how much mathematics and science and engineering goes into a building. Cheers.
Good insights. This video fails to explain how the rules that the masons followed were derived. I don't think it was purely trial and error; that would be a dangerous and expensive process with actual stone buildings. Advanced geometry goes back at least to the ancient Egyptians, who needed it to build the pyramids, as well as to build the irrigation systems for their crop fields.
Interesting talk and I really like how you could effectively show the beautiful structure of the cathedral ( I didn't fully realize that they were effectively all glass walls on all sides from the engineering point of view)
Good to see you back! As an automotive engineering technologist I thoroughly enjoy your method of presentation and explanation. Thank you Bill!
I never thought Id see the day! So excited!
I was beginning to wonder myself.
One of the best channels around, excited to watch this!
Another outstanding, fascinating, and compelling video! Thank you!
So fascinating that the engineering method doesnt require what we know as "science"!
I'm not an engineer, just a guy who is curious about everything. This was one fascinating video! Well done! I'm your newest subscriber.
You are back and im very thankful for this, engineering is so damned interesting when someone who knows can explain it. I didnt have a single clue about this prior to watching the video, so thank you so much!
Currently procrastinating on my space systems engineering class and find it funny how, even though I am determining design choices analytically, the many equations being used still have a strong heuristic aspect to them. Aerospace engineering is a very, very young field after all, so its not surprising that a lot of what I am doing still boils down to very powerful "rule of thumb" equations. I was very happy to see this in my feed. Your influence stretches far beyond what you can possibly know.
The legend returns! I'm stoked to see the next video.
The method of laying out the width of the walls with the rope that you explain here reminds me of so many little tricks that I learned when I trained as a draftsman.
Indeed ... very much related ... I'd guess that this Medieval engineering has more in common with drafting than with structures as taught in civil engineering today!
I've always been taught that engineering is the practical application of science, so this was a really interesting perspective.
You were taught right!!!
I mean, it is, or at least nowadays is. Whether or not it always was depends on how you define science. If you define science as the discovery of knowledge, then all these ancient engineers were still applying science, as somebody had to first discover that knowledge.
Sure, but if the definition involves a fundamental understanding than engineers are not applying science. I would not on this day and age call observation of a phenomena “science.” That said, the real point here is this: The notion that detailed scientific understands occurs, THEN engineers apply it - with the word ‘apply’ not thought out, but containing the implication of ‘merely’ apply - is surely wrong.”
It's not a bad definition, but I'd say it is incomplete. More accurate to say that science and maths are tools in the engineers toolbox that can be used to solve the problem. But then so are things like "rule of thumb" and "accepted precedent", and "if all else fails, make it thicker". Engineering USES science, but existed before it, as the examples given illustrate.
Truly the best explanation of engineering that I've heard. Should be shown to students in STEM classes everywhere.
I love how this video explicates the gap between know-how and scientific theory. I happen to love learning about science, math, and other theoretical frameworks, but we're doing ourselves a disservice by confusing the aims of theory (explanatory models) and engineering (building better things). These things definitely interact in interesting ways, but they should be seen as different.
My favorite professor that I never had in college! Thank you Sir for a great video and I hope a new start to many more videos
How I've missed seeing your content, Bill.
Thank you for your time! I'm so grateful for you, your wisdom, knowledge, and critcally, your desire to share it us.
Truly cannot thank you enough.
The clarity of this delivery is unsurpassed. Brilliant!
So great to have you back mate! I could listen to you talk for hours! Great job!
I can tell this is going to be an incredible series. Thank you so much!
Bill, it's so great to see you back on TH-cam with new videos, diving deep in the engineering history and method
Love your content! Just curious. Will your new videos contain the comedic wit of your old content? Keep it up!
No. No comedy, we stopped that long, long ago.
😏😏
I discovered this channel yesterday. I wish it would have been earlier, this is fantastic content, and ahhh, the diction, voice, tone and eloquence of @engineerguy is delightful. Thank you, my best wishes from Colombia, I'll get up to date and will look forward for more content.
P.d. The video about soda cans is also very good.
I’ve worked in the construction industry for almost twenty years, and I can tell you that this method is used all the time. Builders often ignore the drawings/specifications in favor of their tried & true rules of thumb. Of course, they don’t tell any of the Engineers this.
It's so great to have your content again. Your calm and concise teaching method is wonderful. Thank you for always making me feel the joy and wonder of my profession.
Es flyer.!!!
I can't believe how you and your production team can have the same awesome feel to the storytelling ,, great work Bill
@6:25 well by stating that the builders needed to stay between a certain ratio (1/4 or 1/5), then they had to use mathematics or an intuitive sense of mathematics to build the arches. Stating that engineering doesn't require science or math I think is incorrect, because science & math are not just what we learn in school with numbers but rather a way of thinking & reasoning.
Your videos make me feel like a student in a class who is very engaged in the lesson. Absolutely enjoy learning from your videos.
You may be the only PhD holder I ever heard who speaks with clarity and meaningful purpose.
This is what should have been shown on history channel instead of ancient aliens, an entire generation wouldn't have been fooled into ridiculous pseudoscientific nonsense
But aliens built the pyramids
So there are no UFOs? 😢
@@Derederi I think you missed the point. And whether there are or not the history channel does not care and will not be responsible for discovery. They sold out to network shareholders and betrayed their audience. They should be providing real historical and educational programs like they once did.
Very interesting. I wish I'd seen this 5 days ago. Mainly as I would like to have asked how you feel this applies, or not, in the later Gothic cathedrals. Where the ever increasing heights involved and the desire for lace like clerestories required thinning walls and external buttressing. Funnily enough I hadn't come across this one before and have now added it to my mental collection.
As a stonemason I never tire of things that can be done with compass, straight edge and a bit of string! Thank you.
Great stuff! Hope to see even more videos from you soon!
I didn't know Professor Hammack started posting videos again and I'm so happy I rediscovered this channel. One of the very best on TH-cam.
Your aluminum can video remains perhaps my favourite example of serious, informed, but fun and engaging explanation in a medium (TH-cam) susceptible to being quite the opposite. You really set a standard, and this new series is very exciting to me.
this building method was science. It was tried and tested and withstood time. They used the science of the gothic building method to erect the biggest structures of the medieval ages.
Exactly so, trial and error, the essence of the scientific method. And lots of them fell down and had to be rebuilt either more strongly or on a different principle, as at Ely.
Thank you, it had to be said. Suggesting that the masons didn't know Mathematics is just lack of knowledge of how mathematics looked in middle ages. It was all constructions. Copernicus calculated orbits by drawing crazy pictures and constructing relationships between lengths. Those masons knew their maths very well, it's us who are not familiar with their language.
Sorry sir but have you ever painted a painting or learned how to play an instrument? There is a lot of trial and error and one could argue making cathedrals is like making a giant sculpture. Would you say these things are “sciences”..? The definition of science is very clearly defined in the scientific method, and this is not science it is art.
@@colossusjak2 Go research the gothic construction method and tell me that wasn't "science" It is the very method used by the episopals in their national cathedral. Thousands of tons of concrete sit in within the roof of that building to hold it together. That is not merely art.
@EJP286CRSKW Trial and error is not the essence of the scientific method in any meaningful sense. It's the essence of learning of all kinds. You cannot simply claim that something is science because it requires trial and error.
Nice video. But to be fair you should also talk about places like Beauvais Cathedral. Who (partially) collapsed after building and has structural problems to this day. Because every rule of thumb is learned by dozen of painful lessons.
Very cool. Living near the great Cathedral of Cologne in Germany, I often marvel at how they could possibly construct such enormous and complex structures without modern technology.
And the vision and dedication of the people, who devised and built it, is as awe inspiring, as the building itself.
For the glory of God
It only took 630 years
@@billklatsch5058
Well...most of that delay was due to wars and lack of funds. Nothing you can do about that.
@@raraavis7782Delay,… like today 😂
This video taught me something I didn't even know I didn't know! Afterwards, I followed a link to a National Geographic video about Brunelleschi's dome on the Florence cathedral. It was especially fascinating to watch in the light of this video. To begin with, the octangular base (already built before Brunelleschi was tasked with the dome) was so imperfect, that it lacked an accurate center point!
Wow, the insights from this video changed the course of the study I am writing. Using machine learning to scan old temples and cathedrals, I was looking for the method the ancients used to transmit formulas for ratios. I need to also scan for the physical methods used to calculate the building and boat construction measures. This video is worth every second of the time I spent watching it!
Oh, you're including boat construction too? Why? That's very interesting.
I'm glad to see this viewpoint. In school I learned that Calculus was used to design architecture. Maybe it was used in only analysis, not design. Your video highlights the difference between carpenters, plumbers, electricians and their modern day engineer equivalents. Skilled tradesmen can accomplish amazing work through experience with or without mathematics
The scope of it is insanely limited though. For building things that we do today, it is necessary to have a predictive approach.
Also, this video doesn't point out something important and lost itself in survivor bias. Thousands of churches and buildings fell like a house of cards. The precision we can achieve today is unparallel.
This video has given me some food for thought. I don't think I've ever heard the engineering method articulated that way.
Also, glad to see more videos are coming. Are you planning a series and then another break or ongoing videos?
We can build a cathedral without science and math, but now that we have science and math, we can't build a cathedral.
No because it lost its original purpose of being something as a house of God. It has now become about profiteering, getting the most out of a structure financially with the most limited number of resources possible. It has nothing to do with passion anymore.
I’m so happy to see you back, my friend. You have influenced me a lot. I was very sad when you stopped posting for a long time. I was one of your first followers. I remember watching the IBM printer video when I was 16. That was more than 10 years ago. Welcome back, buddy.
3:00 "constructed by a team who had never learned basic arithmetic" Surviving contracts from those times show that they were entirely competent at calculating quantities and prices.
Maybe I will miss it, but I will watch it later for sure! Good luck! Greetings from Ukraine!
Perhaps you can glean some of this pre-scientific engineering know-how to be able to kick Putin‘s ass, once and for all. Slava Ukraïni!
Hey Bill have you ever made a video of how the staind glass masters made those fantastical custom colors for the cathedrals windows of old? I heard it was so dangerous but read it was a combination of chemistry, and engineering that always fascinated me. Kinda like a master chef. Anyway let me know if you ever get time. Thank you once again for all your work!
Mostly agreed, but… doing geometric construction IS knowing geometry AND doing calculations. Granted, it may not be based on exact scientific theory, but, on the other hand, what exactly is scientific theory? What is often misunderstood is that geometry IS a method of doing calculations but in a language other than the language of numbers.
I think I have found one of the very best presenters I have ever seen in my life. These videos will be award winning sooner or later.
Came to watch this video purely by accident, and was stunned by the beauty and cleareness of the presentation, the calm tone and the overall quality of this video.
Subscribed, and can't wait to dig in your archive of probably very interesting videos. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words
Much as I love the channel and content, have to disagree with 1:50 , you could find an equi-triangle by throwing a handful of rice on the floor. Cant get more random than that.
Just an added note: there were no turks back then. Has nothing to do with Turkey.
When the Turks conquered Anatolia they didn’t wipe out everybody. They mixed heavily with the local population, and many people converted to Islam. Many of the people who built these structures share DNA with the current Turkish population.
@@gj1234567899999 Even if what you say is true, that has nothing to do with what I said.
And the way the Turks "mixed" with local populations was through rape, in most cases.
This reminds me of a rule of tumb from Vitruvius. Problem: How thick must be the stone above the door. You measure the distance of support with elbows and make the thickness in hands. You can use the same principal for wood but instead of hands, you use fingers. For example my door measures 2 elbows cca 75 cm, stone must be 2 hands thick cca 14 cm. The ommition of this rule is sometimes seen by museum "proffesionals". The collum that has stood undamaged for 2 tousand years, is laid horizontaly for protection, suddenly breaks, because of inpropper support.
Comically mispelled comment
The VVitchfinder General Difparagef modernity in this tafteful puritan pamphlet
@@bloodyhell8201 it has bene almost two decades since I learned English in school and no real proffesional need to write anything english since. Please enjoy my inperfections, im striving to make less of them 😉
@@Arhpeco perfectly understandable, just havin a wee bit of fun
You are a humble Engineering Guru! I learned of Gobekli Tepe while searching TH-cam videos on Peru's historical stone constructions. Aliens and other magical thinking explanations abound to explain ancient constructions yet this one 10 minute video has simply explained everything. Thank you.
Thank you for making new content, you have excellent videos!
Thank you for your kind words.
In the scientific method, you disprove items until you are left with a predictable model. How is what the stone masons did different? Thank you! I love learning 😊. UPDATE... I think I need to be more patient lol. I watch the rest of the videos and now it makes sense! As usual. Amazing videos! Thanks again! 😊😊
The scientific method is about isolating variables, uncovering correlations and causations, and eventually creating predictive models. Mendeleev used scientific principles to figure out the melting point of elements that hadn't yet even been discovered.
@@TheTdw2000 thank you!!!!
@@TheTdw2000 and his predictions were right! Mind boggling.
I'm a mechanical engineer working in a cutting edge industry. we've even set numerous world records and world firsts with our designs. We use TONS of rules of thumb to design our solutions every single day, and I can explain why too. It just takes a while.
No doubt you do! The engineering method as I have described it still holds …
@@engineerguyvideo yes it does, and I love it. Too many engineers over rly on pure math, without understanding its limitations and pitfalls. Sometimes math is the right answer, other times it's not.
No mention of my guild huh? You clearly don’t understand we ARE engineering and science. Compagnons have been practicing descriptive geometry metallurgy and mortar chemistry since the times of pepin the short. You’re just not initiated because you’ve never trained or built anything worthy of god.
This explains why all real mad scientists are engineers.
HE’S BACK!!!! I’ve learn so much from your videos. Thank you so much!!
This knowledge should be taught to all non-engineering professionals. I never thought I would be so interested in a topic about engineering. Awesome content!