This book presents an exploration of the arch from the points of view of architecture, mathematics, engineering, construction history, and cultural symbolism. The arch, one of the most beautiful ways that architects invented to go from "here to "there, spans greater distances and sustains larger loads than a simple post and beam structure, but because it is also more complex, an Eastern proverb called it "the structure that never sleeps. Leonardo da Vinci described the arch as "two weaknesses which, leaning on each other, become a strength, a metaphor for the way that science and art lean on each other to strengthen our lives.

Six articles on arches as gateways from science to culture.- Articles on mathematical elements in historic and contemporary architecture as well as on ratios and morphologic rhythms.- Two book reviews

Inhalt
Letter from the Editor.- Letter from the Editor.- Arches: Gateways from Science to Culture.- The Arch: Born in the Sewer, Raised to the Heavens.- As Hangs the Flexible Line: Equilibrium of Masonry Arches.- Galileo was Wrong: The Geometrical Design of Masonry Arches.- Gateway to Mathematics Equations of the St. Louis Arch.- Arches and Culture.- Solving Ertha Diggs's Ancient Stone Arch Mystery.- Other Research.- Mathematical Elements in Historic and Contemporary Architecture.- On Division in Extreme and Mean Ratio and its Connection to a Particular Re-Expression of the Golden Quadratic Equation x2? x? 1 = 0.- Structure of Phenomenological Forms: Morphologic Rhythm.- Book Review.- Serene Greed of the Eye: Leon Battista Alberti and the Philosophical Foundation of Renaissance Architectural Theory.- Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque.- Exhibit Review.- L'uomo del Rinascimento. Leon Battista Alberti e le Arti a Firenze tra Ragione e Bellezza.