Structural Engineer Answers City Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

Structural engineer Dr. Nehemiah Mabry answers the internet's burning questions about city building. How are underwater tunnels made? What city has the best urban designer? How do bridges not collapse? How do floating cities work? How do sink holes happen? Nehemiah answers all these questions and much more!

Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey
Director of Photography: Constantine Economides
Editor: Ron Douglas
Expert: Dr. Nehemiah Mabry

Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi
Associate Producer: Brandon White
Production Manager: Eric Martinez
Production Coordinator: Fernando Davila
Casting Producer: Nicole Ford

Camera Operator: Chris Alfonso
Audio: Brett Van Deusen
Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola

Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Deutsch
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Assistant Editor: Ben Harowitz


Follow WIRED:



Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.

ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.

[DrNee]

Thank you for this opportunity WIRED! I appreciate the comments as well 🙏🏾

[RishabhDesairf]

Should've called it "Structural support".

[abiolaolayinka]

He's not "just" a structural engineer, his knowledge of each aspect of civil engineering is astounding. Beautiful video.

[Pablo-cnxt]

I wanna point out how these videos are such a great way for children to explore careers and not to mention seeing someone who looks like them be an expert in their field. Well done Wired.

[ABASE]

I’m still blown away by cathedrals built in the 1300s.
Generational projects that are incredibly technically fantastic.

‘What is your favorite building’ is a staple ice breaker exercise for my group.

[ExileOfSand]

This guy was sooo good, loved how well he explained everything, plus his ideas of ideal architecture too. Bring him back!!

[timt]

As a structural engineer im amazed at what this guy knows. Some of the questions i would not consider to be our job like the question about traffic lights. Also some questions that were asked are for a specialized kind of structural engineer but he knew the answeres anyway. Im impressed!

[NFSHeld]

In Germany, traffic lights may also be deliberately programmed out of phase or particularly in phase for slow speeds, to slow down traffic. I.e. in a 30 zone you can either go fast and have to stop on each red light, or go slow and arrive at the perfect time.

[JelenaW]

As a structural engineering university professor, I sometimes think I might gesticulate too much when explaining some things. It was so reassuring to see Dr. Nehemiah do the exact same movements :) We need to "reinforce" those definitions with our hands :)

[joshfriedman]

I know nothing about engineering and I thought that I don't care about it either... Until I saw this video. SO informative and clear! Thanks Wired. Thanks Nehemiah.

[_maxgray]

Dr. Mabry is really good! Knowing the right information and conveying it to laypeople clearly are two different things and he's clearly got both sets of skills. Please bring him back!

[ClosestToTheSun]

As a CIVE, this is one of the most well done of these expert videos I've seen. I wouldn't be surprised to see this video included in some Intro university courses for engineering

[pinkrose]

As a stormwater engineer we do design ponding to happen on purpose. For very large storm events we are restricted to how much water is allowed to enter the sewer system and at what rate. To meet these allowances we restrict flows and design for surface ponding. Not sure what the design requirements are in California but sometimes the puddles you see during big rain events are actually designed to be there.

[CLSGL]

I love seeing smart, genuine professionals talk about what they love. It’s a bonus when they can actually talk about it in a way that educates you!!

[happyperson]

He worked at the university I went to and talked to my freshman class a few times. If I'm not mistaken he judged a competition we had and I was the third place winner. I got my engineering degree but am not using it. Glad someone as smart and nice as Nehemiah is though.

[scottwooledge]

Worth noting many of the existing subways in NYC replaced elevated lines. Elevated lines were unsightly, noisy, made local housing undesirable and the areas beneath them were dark and often attracted seedy characters. They ran on coal so they spewed pollution. Subways are far superior, particularly for places as dense as NYC.

[zacharymeagor]

Would love to see a similar episode with an urban planner. I feel they have another perspective on the political and theoretical aspects of cities.

[samuelturner]

I’d love to see more of him, he explained clearly and passionately.

[StayVCA]

It's really nice to get some real professional and truly an expert on their field on answering some of these questions!! 🤩

[DarkStar]

Would love to see this done for other engineering disciplines - like electrical, mechanical, aerospace etc