764.00 Escape from Compression Structuring

764.01 Geodesics introduces tension as the integrity of structure. Geodesics is in fundamental contradistinction to the compressional arches where men made lesser rings of stone and bricks and so forth, like Santa Sophia, fitting them together beautifully and shaping them very mathematically to prevent their slipping or falling inwardly from one another to break the integrity of the compressional rings. In Santa Sophia, they put a chain around the bottom of the dome to take care of the outward thrust of the enormous weights of the aggregate trying to come apart. They could not build an exclusively compressionally composed dome that would not thrust outwardly at the base, so they put the chains around the bases to prevent their collapsing.

764.02 We have seen that in tensional structures there is no limit of length to cross section: you can make as big a pneumatic bag as you want. In the comprehensive, geodesically omnitriangulated, tensegrity structures, we are able to reach unlimited spans because our only limitation is tension, where there is no inherent limit to cross section due to length. We get to where there is no cross section visible at all, as in the pull between the Earth and the Moon. With such structural insights we can comprehend the structure of an apple in terms of noncompressible hydraulic compression and critical proximity cellular wall tensioning. Synergetics identifies tensegrity with high-tensile alloys, pneumatics, hydraulics, and load distribution.