Great Course on World's Greatest Structures

I just completed the 24-half-hour-lecture course "Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity" from The Teaching Company (link is here: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1153). It's an AMAZING course and I learnt a lot from it. Below is my review of this course at the Teaching Company website.

Regards

Tri

"This is, simply, one of the BEST courses from The Teaching Company.

A couple of reasons why this is such a great course:

1. Professor Ressler is an outstanding presenter; very passionate about the topic, and produces great demo/models to illustrate the insights he's teaching.

2. The course is very well organised into 3 sections: The first 4 or so lectures discusses the science of structures (free-body diagram etc., equilibrium, forces, moments etc.); the second part (6 or so lectures) discusses basic structural configurations (columns, beams, arches, trusses, etc.); and the third part (the best) actually goes through real-world great structures. The course is well structured.

3. Prof Ressler not only explains the great structures, but he also goes through the historical evolution of great structures. I found these historical stories truly enlightening.

4. Prof Ressler also covers failures of structures (such as collapsing bridges) and explains WHY these structures collapsed and HOW these failures led to the next level of innovation. Fascinating!

5. The accompanying course booklet is fantastic, with detailed & clear answers at the back for most questions.

Overall, this is an absolutely wonderful course. I learnt a lot from it, so much that since viewing the course, I often look at structures (buildings, bridges, towers) on the way to work in a new light!!"