westminister abbey -structure rigidity

[tali122]

how did they calculate /simulate load bearing and structural rigidity of huge complex buildings like westminister abbey , given that they were designed and built many many hundreds of years ago and technology was none exsistent?

[Mortartube]

I think it was trial and error to a certain degree and lessons were learnt from failures, such as the collapse of part of the cathedral of St Pierre in Beauvais, France in 1284. They probably made models of key areas of structure and placed weights on them to test them, then scaled up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauvais#Cath.C3. A9drale_de_Saint-Pierre

[Makinamess]

I'd agree - trial and error. Experienced masons and builders would know how much loading a certain type of structure and material could take. This information would be passed down to their "apprentices" in the form of "this is how it is done and you must do it my way". It's only with the emergence of advanced mathematics, calculus and materials science that people have known about such stuff as Young's Modulus and the inherent strength of materials. In past times, builders subconsciously built in factors of safety that have only in the past 100 years or so been proven mathematically to be way above what was really needed, which is why we now see such slender bridges and tall buildings.

[Caladon]

I agree with the above posts.

Also they would severely over compensate.

e.g. the columns supporting the roof of cathedrals could be 6 feet across when infact they only needed to be 2.

Personally I think over doing it makes it more aesthetically pleasing.