Real-world civil engineering events for introductory mechanics: The Citicorp Center, Millenium Tower (SF), and Champlain Towers South structures

摘要

I regularly include real-world engineering examples when teaching Newton's laws and then statics in introductory physics, particularly the example of the structural design flaw in the Midtown NYC Citicorp Center skyscraper caught by an undergraduate engineering student. A positive tale of how things were caught and fixed before failure.