Let’s Build an Aqueduct!
The Romans built concrete aqueducts to transport fresh water into their cities.Copyright 2007 Emanuele, Flickr, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18375492
Students explore in detail how the Romans built aqueducts using arches—and the geometry involved in doing so. Building on what they learned in the associated lesson about how innovative Roman arches enabled the creation of magnificent structures such as aqueducts, students use trigonometry to complete worksheet problem calculations to determine semicircular arch construction details using trapezoidal-shaped and cube-shaped blocks. Then student groups use hot glue and half-inch wooden cube blocks to build model aqueducts, doing all the calculations to design and build the arches necessary to support a water-carrying channel over a three-foot span. They calculate the slope of the small-sized aqueduct based on what was typical for Roman aqueducts at the time, aiming to construct the ideal slope over a specified distance in order to achieve a water flow that is not spilling over or stagnant. They test their model aqueducts with water and then reflect on their performance.
Aqueducts are an ancient form of transporting water, and their structural systems are still in place today, although no longer in use. Two thousand years ago when Romans built aqueducts, the objective was to transport fresh water over miles and miles of land to reach the cities. They built tall and sturdy structures with built-in channels for water to flow from its source all the way to the aqueduct end. The structures were carefully designed so the flow rate would not drain the source too quickly, while also not letting the water stand still. To ensure optimum flow rate, the channels were engineered to only drop several inches every 100 feet. Today, we are accustomed to transporting water through underground pipes using gravity and pumps, but 2000 years ago, the technology of aqueducts and capabilities were absolutely amazing and nothing like them had ever been seen or built before.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Identify geometrical shapes and patterns associated with engineering design.
- Use the dimensions of geometrical shapes such as triangles to find the dimensions of different shapes.