the falling tower of pizza the leaning tower of pisa

There are three main lessons I learned from the Tower of Pisa: first, find the root cause of problems in your design second, the cost to correct problems in a design gets more expensive as the further along it is in the product development process and third, sometimes designs are better when they are imperfect. Even the flagpole on top of the tower has been made vertical, rather than following the angle of the rest of the tower. Instead of addressing the root cause of the lean, efforts were made to compensate for the lean in the third, fifth, and eighth stories. Even as the tower’s second story was being completed the tower was starting to lean. As the structure got heavier the soil beneath the tower began to settle unevenly. The soil beneath the tower is composed of mud, sand, and clay, water tables in the area are also fairly high. 'I arrived for work, when I heard this breaking sound, and saw the tower slowly tipping, until it finally quickened and fell at an incredible rate,' reported one witness, who only minutes later, would have been crushed under the tower.The lean of the tower is due to the soil beneath the tower not being stable enough to support the tower. Popular Science reported in 1960 that the tower was indeed falling over, but few actually expected that it could happen. Since the 16th century, Pisa remained as a small city. The shrinking power of the Italian city-state, due to long wars with Florence, gave way to a town that catered to tourists. It became famous for it's leaning position, despite a rather short height of only 8 stories. Pisa residents have recently been split on whether to allow taller buildings to be built in the area for several multinational corporations, or to preserve the landmark tower's place in the skyline.Ĭonstruction on the Tower of Pisa began in 1173, but did not finish until 1350.

Luckily, the disaster was limited to businesses rather than the residential area. Early estimates indicate that thirteen people are dead, but this is unconfirmed as rescuers pick through the rubble. In the early morning hours in Pisa, Italy, the famous Leaning Tower finally leaned too far and fell.

The falling tower of pizza the leaning tower of pisa