Funicular geometry is an actual thing, and not just a clever title for my square of Angels Flight in downtown Los Angeles. I know what geometry is and I know what a funicular is, but I am not sure I completely understand this description of ‘funicular geometry’!

Funicular geometries, which follow the idealized shapes of hanging chains under a given loading, are recognized as materially efficient structural solutions because they exhibit no bending under design loading, usually self-weight.

Now I have since found better explanations but I wish Robert was here. He always knew how to explain things like this to me. He’d have loved Angels Flight too.

The cars are called Sinai and Olivet

This is the second site that Angels Flight has operated on. The first site closed in the 1960s after nearly 70 years of service and then the second site re-opened here in 1996. Apparently it is not just a tourist attraction, commuters use it to travel up to the California Plaza. I decided it was quicker to walk up the steps alongside it than wait for the next car. It only travels 298 ft with a gradient of around 33%. However it was fun to see.

What is also fun is all your fabulous Geometric Squares. Only a week left of GeometricJanuary, so if you haven’t yet joined us you might want to use this weekend to square.

86 thoughts

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  3. yeah ok….she says with a lost look on her face. I don’t get the chairs in that it is a tram but maybe my brain just isn’t computing what it is seeing!

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    1. you have to wonder sometimes at those who write these explanations!

      I know of that one but do you know I am not sure I have been on that one either.

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      1. I’ve read that quite a lot of science gobbledegook has been unleashed by Chinese AI systems spewing out apparently learned papers. It’s an explanation that makes me feel less brain-squirly 🙂

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  19. What a beautiful funicular, Becky. The cars have a classic shape with striking geometry and I love the colour. Not a train I’d heard mentioned before.

    And as for the funicular geometry, that is not a good description is it! Also, I’m not sure the funicular curves are used in funicular transport. I think it is two different things both using the word that derives from the latin funis meaning rope.

    In the transport the rope/cable is key to its operation. Whereas for the geometry used in building bridges and the like it is ropes that provide the tension to form and hold the curve. Hence the use of the same word. But don’t take my theory as fact!

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    1. yeah I think you are right – the more reading I did the more it sounded like your theory.

      and glad you like it as much as I did. The colour just popped out at me. I knew nothing about it until I spotted it from my bedroom window

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