About the Pendentive in Architecture and Engineering

About the Pendentive in Architecture and Engineering A pendentive is a triangular piece beneath a dome that allows the dome to rise high above the floor. Usually ornamented and four to a dome, pendentives make the dome appear as if its hanging in the air, like a pendent. The word is from the Latin pendens meaning hanging.   Pendentives are used for stabilizing a round dome on a square frame, resulting in enormous interior open space beneath the dome. The Dictionary of Architecture and Construction defines a pendentive as One of a set of curved wall surfaces which form a transition between a dome (or its drum) and the supporting masonry. Architectural historian G. E. Kidder Smith has defined the pendentive as A triangular spheroid section used to effect the transition from a square or polygonal base to a dome above. How did early structural engineers design round domes to be supported over square buildings? Beginning in about A.D. 500, builders began using pendentives to create additional height and carry the weight of domes in early Christian architecture of the Byzantine era. Dont worry if you just cant visualize this engineering. It took civilization hundreds of years to figure out the geometry and physics. Pendentives are significant in the history of architecture because they defined a new engineering technique that allowed interior domes to rise to new heights. Pendentives alsocreated a geometrically interesting interior space to be ornamented. Four pendentive areas could tell a visual story. More than anything, however, pendentives tell the real story of architecture. Architecture is about solving problems. For early Christians the problem was how to create soaring interiors that expresses mans adoration of God. Architecture also evolves over time. We say that architects build on each others discoveries, which makes the art and craft an iterative process. Many, many domes fell down into a crumble of ruin before the mathematics of geometry solved the problem. Pendentives allowed domes to soar and gave artists another canvas - the triangular pendentive became a defined, framed space. The Geometry of Pendentives Although Romans experimented with pendentives early on, the structural use of pendentives was an Eastern idea for Western architecture. It was not until the Byzantine period and under the Eastern Empire that the enormous structural possibilities of the pendentive were appreciated, writes Professor Talbot Hamlin, FAIA. To support a dome over the corners of a square room, builders realized that the diameter of the dome had to equal the diagonal of the room and not its width. Professor Hamlin explains: To understand the form of a pendentive, it is only necessary to place half an orange with its flat side down on a plate and cut equal portions vertically off the sides. What is left of the original hemisphere is called a pendentive dome. Each vertical cut will be in the shape of a semicircle. Sometimes these semicircles were built as independent arches to support the upper spherical surface of the dome. If the top of the orange is cut off horizontally at the height of the top of these semicircles, the traingular pieces still left will be exactly the shape of pendentives. This new circle can be made the base for a new complete dome, or a vertical cylinder can be built upon it to support another dome higher up. - Talbot Hamlin Summary: The Pendentive Look Sixth Century, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey, Salvator Barki/Moment/Getty Images 18th Century, Paris Pantheon, Chesnot/Getty Images 18th Century, St. Pauls Cathedral Dome, London, Peter Adams/Getty Images 18th Century, Mission Church in Conc, Arroyo Seco, Querà ©taro, Mexico, AlejandroLinaresGarcia via Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 Sources Source Book of American Architecture, G. E. Kidder Smith, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996, p. 646Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, Cyril M. Harris, ed., McGraw- Hill, 1975, p. 355Architecture through the Ages by Talbot Hamlin, Putnam, Revised 1953, pp. 229-230

Features of Quantitative Research Essays

Features of Quantitative Research Essays Features of Quantitative Research Essay Features of Quantitative Research Essay Quantitative research tends to be numerical or categorical. This type of research aims to make predictions, establish facts and test hypothesis that have already been stated, that is, aims to find evidence which supports or does not support on existing hypothesis. Quantitative research normally involves large numbers of respondents, typically a hundred or more, and obtains results that are representative of the total population. Therefore, it is a form of research method that is considerably appropriate for generalization of descriptions. There are several main types of approaches to quantitative research (show as following) and these techniques are widely used in many substantive fields to study and explain individual differences and patterns of relationships among variables. Correlational research aims to find out whether there is a relationship between two or more variables (Gay Airasian, 1999). In any case, if a relationship is found, then its degree is identified by a number between -1. 00 and +1. 00 and this number is known as a correlation coefficient. For instance, when one variable increases and the other also increases, then the correlation in this case would be positive. On the other hand, if a correlation is negative, that means, when one variable decreases, the other also decreases. Survey research targets to answer questions about current status of the subject of study. This usually involves studying attitudes, practices or concerns of certain group of people. (Gay Airasion, 1999).   Causal-comparative research aims to find a cause-effect relationship between two or more different programs, methods, or groups. : An example of this would be to find out if children watch violence programs on TV causes aggressive behaviours. The main advantage of quantitative research is the results are statistically reliable and the results are able to be projected to the population. It has high reliability as different researchers, using the same measurement system are likely to come up at the same measurement for same subjects This method is appropriate for measuring both attitudes and behaviours and therefore quantitative research method is one of the traditional research method that many psychologists used in their approach to research design. Differences in features in another basic type of research approach When talking about the features of quantitative research, people often mention another basic research method qualitative research as a comparison. In qualitative research, it involves emhasising meanings, experiences, descriptions and etc (Coolican, 1990). And it uses mainly non-numerical data such as observations and interviews, that is, it does not use numbers in its analysis. Data is usually in the form of words that have been recorded to represent observations. Also in contrast to quantitative research, qualitative research often requires small number of respondent. The reason of why mentioned the features of qualitative research method is because this would add up to the disadvantages of quantitative research method to explain why I think many psychologist has become dissatisfied with the more traditional quantitative approach to research design, despite it is the most common type of approach in many psychological research. Disadvantages of quantitative research As one of the reasons for using quantitative research is to find out whether a group of people shares certain characteristic in common, the disadvantage of this method is that the resulting theory usually unable to take account of the unique characteristics of individual cases. Another characteristic of results which generated from quantitative research is they tend to be very simple in comparison to qualitative research, which is generally rich in information with detailed descriptions such as interview transcripts, personal comments and audio recordings, the results obtained from quantitative research are generally reduced to a few numerical statistics and summarised in a few short statements. In this sense, depth of understanding in qualitative research is therefore considerably superficial. According to McCullough (1995), the primary disadvantages of quantitative research is that issues are only measurement if they are known prior to the beginning of the survey (and therefore, have been incorporated into the questionnaire) and quantitative research requires the advance formulation of specific hypothesis by Huysamen (1997). With this characteristic in place, quantitative research is therefore only appropriate when the issues to be tested are known. This research method would not be appropriate to use in situations such as an initial leaning phase or as a method to explore new ideas. One disadvantage of quantitative research is that its study can be unreliatble since this type of study is relied on statistical method of analyzing data, unless use large enough samples of respondents, otherwise it might not be able to provide accurate or meaningful results. Some psychologists criticized that quantitative research usually takes place in artificial settings. And the way researchers create an artificial settings such as in laboratory in quantitative research is due to the attempt to control the variables in their studies. That is the reason of why some psychologists doubted whether the results obtained in these unnatural settings can apply in the real world. Thus, again, results from this research method can possibly be unreliable. Summary Quantitative research is criticized for its low validity as it is unable to take account of the unique characteristic of individual cases and therefore results are generalized, narrow and lack of detailed information. Also, as the settings of this type of research are often artificial, information or data obtained from these type of studies are likely unrealistic. For these reasons, many psychologist has become dissatisfied with this traditional research approach in research design. Reference Coolican, Hugh (1990), Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. Hodder Sloughton. Gay, L. R. , Airasian, Peter. (1999). Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application, Sixth Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Huysamen, G. K. (1997, March). Parallels Between Qualitative Research and Sequentially Performed Quantitative Research. South African Journal of Psychology, 27, 1-8.

Analysis of Multiculturalism in a Global Society Article

Analysis of Multiculturalism in a Global Society - Article Example There many different aspects in which multiculturalism can affect the way people within a society behave. One of the factors that affect the behavior of people the most is the culture in which they are raised in. Culture refers to learned, shared, and integrated way of life (NesSmith, 1995). An example of the impact culture has on the behavior within a society is the different roles of women depending in which part of the world they live in. In the United States, women have equal life and they play an integral role in family life. Not only are the primary caretakers for the children, they also share the financial role with men. â€Å"Women compromise more than half the US workforce† (Missouricollege, 2009). In contrast to the Middle East women have very few rights and men dominate society and have power over most aspects of everyday life. In societies in which one of the gender lives in inequality progress is limited because there is a large opportunity cost associated with in hibiting the rights of women. There are other injustices that occur in foreign nations which in the perspective of the local is the normal activity. An example is the spread of child labor in many developing nations. Children should have the right to receive a proper childhood instead of being forced to work at an age in which neither their minds nor bodies are prepared for the task that should be performed by adults. Multiculturalism can also be utilized in an official manner as a type of policy guideline for governmental matters such as immigration. Three approaches to deal with immigrant groups and their cultures are monoculturalism, melting pots, and multiculturalism (Wordiq, 2009). In a monoculturalism, culture countries implement policies in which immigrants are accepted and assimilated. A melting pot occurs in  places where immigrant cultures are mixed and consolidated. The best example of a melting pot is the United States of America.