I found this wonderful article in one the Answers magazines. I thought you would enjoy the amazing handy work of our Creator as well as all the history this article contains. If you don't get the Answers in Genesis magazine I strongly encourage you to order them. They are full of wonderful discoveries as well as in-depth information on God's creation.
One Leg Up On Architects
By Don DeYoung
When it was completed in 1889, the Eiffel Tower was hailed as a marvel of man’s engineering. But its basic design was actually borrowed from the work of an ancient designer – the Creator, who engineered the human femur.
To show off the latest advances in technology, France hosted a world’s fair in Paris in 1889. Organizers held a competition among architects to propose daring new structures to commemorate the grand event. One French engineer, Gustave Eiffel, went to an unusual source for new design man anatomy, Herman con Meyer.[1]
In the 1850s, Meyer had studied the human femur, or thighbone, which connects to the hip. This bone, the largest in our body, has an unusual off-center ball joint that fits into the hip socket. For strength, the bone’s curved head has many internal bone fibers, called trabeculae. These bone fibers crisscross each other in layers and are precisely aligned to withstand the varying forces of tension and compression. As a result of this ingenious design, the femur efficiently supports and transfers the off-center weight of the person. The femur’s ball joint may look awkward, but it functions superbly for a lifetime of movement unless bone disease interferes.
Swiss engineer Karl Cullman later generated mathematical models of the femur design.[2] In the late 1860s he noted that the trabeculae fibers closely resembled the struts and braces used in buildings. Architect Eiffel then took these ideas and designed his famous Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in the world at that time, to be built with a minimum amount of iron for maximum strength. The outward flares at the base of the tower resemble the upper curved portion of the femur. The internal wrought-iron braces used in the tower closely follow the design of trabeculae within the femur.
In the early 1860s, engineers realized that the human femur is made up of mathematically precise, crisscrossed patterns of fiber (called trabeculae) that reduce the bone's weight while giving it maximum strength against multiple forces. This exquisite design inspired the architect who designed the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower today is considered a work of art. A true marvel of human engineering, its elegant design was originally based on God’s design of the human body. As Psalm 139:14 declares, "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well."
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Dr. Don DeYoung is chairman of physical science at Grace College, Winona Lake, Indiana. He is an active speaker for AiG and has written 14 books on Bible-science topics. Dr. DeYoung is currently president of the Creation Research Society with hundreds of members worldwide.
[1] P. Forbes, The Gecko’s Foot: Bio-Inspiration (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), p. 208
[2] D. W. Thompson, On Growth and Form, edited by J. T. Bonner, first published in 1917 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1961).
[3] Answers Magazine Oct. – Dec. 2009 p.58-59 written by Dr. Don DeYoung
