¶ Trees
Index Entry
Trees:
“it vertically at the end of your arm, but if you try to elevate the bucket toward the horizontal it becomes more and more difficult. You can’t really hold it out there. Because your arm is a pretty good size this makes you appreciate what the tree is doing with what is called the branch root into the trunk, Although relatively small, this area is sometimes sustaining a branch eight of more then two tons, compared with the 50 pounds with which you were struggling. And the tree is able to do this in winds of hurricane velocity and wave those tons around and still not have the branch break off. In the airplane we call that joint the ‘wing root’ at the point where the wing comes to the fuselage. The greatest stresses experienced by flying a plane are at the wing root. Some of the great tree branches are cantilevered out from their branch roots as much as 40 feet. How can you possibly make such a structure as that?”
“The tree uses extraordinary structural strategies both in the tension and compression of its tensegrity patterning.”
¶ Citations
- Syracuse Address, p. 60, 7 Nov '67
