Taipei 101
I did get to Taiwan and have safely returned. It looked as though the next typhoon (NABI) was swinging north to miss Taiwan, bearing down on Korea. But NABI made a quick hook to the east, deciding to hit both southern and northern Japan. Now that I've left and typhoon KHANUN is approaching Taiwan, all should be dissuaded that I am a typhoon magnet.
Aside from having one less day than anticipated, Taiwan was great fun. I'll post a recap over the next few days.
Day one began with a visit to Taipei 101. I hadn't hear about this building until earlier this year. It's currently the tallest building in the world in three categories (height to architectural top, height of highest occupied floor and height to the top of the roof). There's an excellent article on different categories, current and past record holders as well as planned construction here. I've been to the top of the Sears Tower when it was the tallest in the same three categories and while Taipei 101 is over 200 feet taller it feels shorter from the top as there's no sense of scale. Taipei is a rather flat city. The second-tallest building in the city (the Shin Kong Life Tower) is halfway across town and, at 51 stories, is dwarfed by 101. The buildings surrounding 101 are maybe 10 stories tall. From the observation deck on the 89th floor you get the sense that you're high, but as there's really nothing to compare your height with (cars look just small whether you're 50 stories or 100 stories above them) you don't really get a sense of the true height of the building.
What you do get a sense of (or at least the engineers do) is the elevator. The observation deck is serviced by a pair of elevators that are the fastest in the world, moving from the 5th floor lobby to the 89th floor travels at a maximum rate of 1,010 meters per minute (60.6 km/hr; 37.7 mph). You arrive 37 seconds after the doors close. While 37.7 mph doesn't sound particularly fast, to put it in perspective it would take a lead ball over 8.5 seconds to drop those same 360 meters.
The elevators are also pressurized while ascending and descending. Since there are three stages to the assent/decent (acceleration, constant speed, deceleration) if the cars were not pressurized the atmospheric pressure would change at different rates during the ride. The pressurization units allows for a constant pressure decrease (or increase) as the elevators are traveling up (or down).
The elevator was among the smoothest I've ridden. The acceleration of about 0.1g was the only indication we were moving. There was no horizontal motion whatsoever. To achieve this the elevators are aerodynamically shaped to cut down on wind resistance as well as incorporating an active counter-mass system that detects slight sideways motion and moves a weight horizontally in the opposite direction to counteract the motion. The system is similar in concept to the tuned-mass damper system utilized by 101, albeit a passive as opposed to active system.
That's it for today. I'll post more on the trip later.
Aside from having one less day than anticipated, Taiwan was great fun. I'll post a recap over the next few days.
Day one began with a visit to Taipei 101. I hadn't hear about this building until earlier this year. It's currently the tallest building in the world in three categories (height to architectural top, height of highest occupied floor and height to the top of the roof). There's an excellent article on different categories, current and past record holders as well as planned construction here. I've been to the top of the Sears Tower when it was the tallest in the same three categories and while Taipei 101 is over 200 feet taller it feels shorter from the top as there's no sense of scale. Taipei is a rather flat city. The second-tallest building in the city (the Shin Kong Life Tower) is halfway across town and, at 51 stories, is dwarfed by 101. The buildings surrounding 101 are maybe 10 stories tall. From the observation deck on the 89th floor you get the sense that you're high, but as there's really nothing to compare your height with (cars look just small whether you're 50 stories or 100 stories above them) you don't really get a sense of the true height of the building.
What you do get a sense of (or at least the engineers do) is the elevator. The observation deck is serviced by a pair of elevators that are the fastest in the world, moving from the 5th floor lobby to the 89th floor travels at a maximum rate of 1,010 meters per minute (60.6 km/hr; 37.7 mph). You arrive 37 seconds after the doors close. While 37.7 mph doesn't sound particularly fast, to put it in perspective it would take a lead ball over 8.5 seconds to drop those same 360 meters.
The elevators are also pressurized while ascending and descending. Since there are three stages to the assent/decent (acceleration, constant speed, deceleration) if the cars were not pressurized the atmospheric pressure would change at different rates during the ride. The pressurization units allows for a constant pressure decrease (or increase) as the elevators are traveling up (or down).
The elevator was among the smoothest I've ridden. The acceleration of about 0.1g was the only indication we were moving. There was no horizontal motion whatsoever. To achieve this the elevators are aerodynamically shaped to cut down on wind resistance as well as incorporating an active counter-mass system that detects slight sideways motion and moves a weight horizontally in the opposite direction to counteract the motion. The system is similar in concept to the tuned-mass damper system utilized by 101, albeit a passive as opposed to active system.
That's it for today. I'll post more on the trip later.
posted by tcw1138 at 12:40 PM
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