This article was taken from the July issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online
No, this is not a nuclear reactor in bondage, but what saves the world’s second tallest skyscraper, the 509m-high Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan, from collapse.
The sliced egg pictured is the world’s largest tuned massdamper which, when the skyscraper tilts one way, cancels the lateral force by swinging the other way. It is suspended at floor 92; there are two smaller dampers at the pinnacle. Without such damping, typhoons would cause sway, making occupants seasick and threatening the structure with collapse.
Comprising 101 floors above ground and five more below, Taipei 101 is 200m from a fault line -- but it can withstand an earthquake with a ground acceleration half as powerful as gravity, something expected once every 2,500 years.
The main pendulum is six metres in diameter and is made of 41 steel plates. Weighing in at 660 tonnes, it is suspended by cables and surrounded by pistons which stop it swinging further than 1.5 metres. It provides the 700,000-tonne tower with a third of its total stability, though you might still end up swaying -- you can view it from the bar.
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/659x425/s_v/sky.jpg" alt="Shock absorber" style="text-shadow: none;"/>
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
