THE LEANING

TOWER OF PISA
AND THE
SCIENCE
BEHIND

BY (ARNAV) GROUP_
Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
The Leaning Tower Of Pisa
– The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa is the campanile,
or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa,
known worldwide for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an
unstable foundation .
– The height of the tower is 55.86 metres from the ground on the low side
and 56.67 metres on the high side.
– The width of the walls at the base is 2.44 m .Its weight is estimated at
14,500 metric tons
Primary Building and Construction

– Work on the ground floor of the white marble campanile began on 14 August
by Diotosalvi and Guglielmo during a period of military success and prosperity .
– The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the second floor in 1178.
This was due to a mere three-metre foundation, set in weak, unstable subsoil, a design
that was flawed from the beginning.
– Construction was subsequently halted for almost a century, as the Republic of Pisa was
almost continually engaged in battles.This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle
which allowed the tower to stay upright that would have otherwise toppled
– On 23 February 1260, Guido Speziale, son of Giovanni Pisano,a prominent sculptor was
elected to oversee the building of the tower.In 1272, construction resumed under Di
Simone. In an effort to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built upper floors with one
side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is curved.
Primary Building and Construction

– Construction was halted again in 1284 when the Pisans were defeated in battle.
– The seventh floor was completed in 1319.[17] The bell-chamber was finally added in
1372. There are seven bells, one for each note of the musical major scale. The largest
one was installed in 1655.
Fun Facts About the Tower of Pisa

– Today, over 5,000,000 tourists visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa each year,and its
primary use has been shifted from being used as a bell tower to a tourist
attraction popular worldwide
– Between 1589 and 1592,Galileo Galilei, who lived in Pisa at the time, is said to
have dropped two cannonballs of different masses from the tower to
demonstrate that their speed of descent was independent of their mass, in
keeping with the law of free fall.
– The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the
north-facing staircase.
Saving the Tower of Pisa

– Numerous efforts have been made to restore the tower to a vertical orientation or at
least keep it from falling over. Most of these efforts failed; some worsened the tilt
– . On 27 February 1964, the government of Italy requested aid in preventing the tower
from toppling. It was, however, considered important to retain the current tilt, due to
the role that this element played in promoting the tourism industry of Pisa.
– The tower was closed to the public on 7 January 1990,[28] after more than two decades
of stabilisation studies.
– The selected method for preventing the collapse of the tower was to slightly reduce its
tilt to a safer angle by soil removal 38 cubic metres from underneath the raised end. The
tower's tilt was reduced by 45 centimetres, returning to its 1838
Saving the Tower of Pisa

– After a phase 1990–2001 of structural strengthening, the tower has been undergoing gradual
surface restoration to repair visible damage, mostly corrosion and blackening.
– In May 2008, engineers announced that the tower had been stabilized such that it had stopped
moving for the first time in its history. They stated that it would be stable for at least 200 years.
– The tower despite its fragility has survived 4 earthquakes that hit it. The researchers found that
the Tower was able to withstand the 4 earthquakes because of dynamic soil-structure
interaction: the height and stiffness of the Tower, together with the softness of the foundation
soil, influences the vibrational characteristics of the structure in such a way that the Tower does
not resonate with earthquake ground motion.
– The same soft soil that caused the leaning and brought the Tower to the verge of collapse
helped it survive
Mathematical Analysis of the Tower
of Pisa
– The leaning of the tower of the infamous monument means that there is a torque acting
on the building
– If we assume the tower to be a rod with axis of rotation at one end of the rod
centre of mass can be taken at the centre of the tower height, which will be
55.86 metres /2 = 27.93 m
– The mass of the tower is as we know is 14,500 metric tons or 14500000 kgs or 1.45 x 10 7
kgs
– The gravitational force on it will be
Mg= (1.45 x 107 kgs) x (9.8)= 14.21 x 107 N
– Due to the 4 degree angle now the tangential force will be
14.21 x 107 N x cos (5’) =14.156 x 107 N N
– The radial force will be
14.21 x 107 N x sin(5’) = 1.23 x 107 N N
– Therefore the torque = (Force)x(distance)
= (Tangential Force on tower)x(Height of tower)
= 14.156 x 107 N x 27.93 m
= 393.9 x 107 N N-m
– Hence T torque = 393.9 x 107 N-mI
– We know T= Ia
where I is moment of inertia/
a is angular acceleration
– I here is moment of inertia of rod for axis at end
MR2 /3 = 3695 x 107 kgm^2
– Therefore a = T /I = 393.9x 107 N-m/3695 x 107 kgm^2
=0.10 t^-2