Load-Bearing Arches: Counterweights Against Collapse
Four arches, each rated 1000, tied with rods, pulleys and hanging weights
Four masonry arches, one tall and pointed and three round, are drawn in elevation, each spanning a wall and each labelled 1000 across its crown. Every arch carries a horizontal tie at the springing with a small pair of pulleys at its centre, from which square weights hang. A short note poses the structural problem: what weights must the counterweights be to resist the ruin of each arch?
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Four tied arches, each rated 1000
Four voussoir arches are shown in elevation, a tall pointed arch at upper left and three semicircular arches, each marked 1000 across its crown and closed by a horizontal tie across the springing line.
What counterweight resists each arch's ruin
From a small pulley block at the centre of each tie hang square weights. Leonardo asks what weights the counterweights must be to make resistance to the collapse (ruin) of each arch.