Dubai’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai has finally reached the height of being the tallest one in the world, and it’s not finished. Now it stands at 1,831.5 feet tall (555 meters), just a bit taller than the CN Tower in Toronto (1,824.9) which was the largest free standing structure. The once tallest building, the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, lost it’s first place standing in July. Oh, well. In order to make sure it stays the tallest, the developers of the Burj aren’t saying how tall it’s going to be. Now, that’s tricky.
As countries clamor to make sure they are noticed by the rest of the world, I expect we haven’t seen the last of the let’s build a really tall building. Height could mean might–that’s the theory anyway. For now the United Arab Emirates has the honor.
Once I wrote a physics factoid for a textbook that explained what makes tall buildings able to withstand a stiff breeze. Even though I understand the principles, I get heart flutters when I get too high off the ground, although my sunglasses did fly off the top of the Carew Tower in Cincinnati when I looked over the wall. Oooops. Here’s something you may not have known, until 1964, Terminal Tower in Cleveland was the 2nd tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building until it was surpassed by the Prudential Tower in Boston.
Here’s an easy to understand article at How Stuff Works that explains how skyscrapers work and how their height is determined, ie, the actual height vs the number of floors.
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