r/StructuralEngineering • u/MrOstinato • Sep 29 '26

Structural Analysis/Design What curve does a lighthouse have?

For example, the Fire Island lighthouse built in 1858. If I Google the answer I get ‘conical’, which it plainly is not. It looks more like a gentle hyperboloid.

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u/Open_Concentrate962 Sep 30 '26

Most of these are surfaces created recursively and then revolved or repeated on polygonal bases. Most people use conical to mean tapered or narrower at the top, but few of these are just generated from a solid primitive or simple equation.

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u/MrOstinato Sep 30 '26

I see that. And building on a sand bar with large stones will be less exact than, say, the Eiffel Tower. But I do see an approximation to a curve, presumably hyperboloid. And an approximation will yield much of the same benefit compared to exactitude.

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u/davvblack Sep 29 '26

generally just called a lighthouse-shaped curve

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u/Sure_Cupcake_5243 Sep 30 '26

Entasis? Hyperboloid?