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Architecture

Catenary arch

Catenary arch
Catenary arch

A catenary arch is a type of architectural arch that follows an inverted catenary curve. The catenary curve has been employed in buildings since ancient times. It is not a parabolic arch, although the non-circumferential curves used in arch designs (parabola, catenary, and weighted catenary) look similar, and match at shallow profiles, so a catenary is often misclassified as a parabola (per Galileo, "the [hanging] chain fits its parabola almost perfectly").

Also on this shelf

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption (Fall River, Massachusetts).

Coronation Cathedral, Alba Iulia.

See also

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.

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