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You are right Phil,
I was thinking shortly after that post that having the same thickness over the whole surface maybe the same as taking all the steel and strenght of a high rise building and distributing its weight and strenght evenly from top to bottom, making use of materials very inefficient. The apex of a dome doesn't have near the weight on it that the base of the dome has, because the weight is cumulative, increasing toward the base. So, an engineer would PROBABLY tell us that it lowers the overall depth rating significantly by making the thickness equal over the whole surface.
Gene
In a message dated 2/24/2005 11:16:31 AM Central Standard Time, pnuytten@compuserve.com writes:
Hi, Gene: Hi Phil,
Question... If you heat the acrylic evenly with several heat lamps, and leave the center just a LITTLE bit cooler than the rest of the project, Would the apex of the bubble retain more of it's thickness and result in more even thickness over the whole dome? This might be accomplished by a ring of lights over the project.
Gene |