Tall Buildings Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells And Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons And they're coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Whoop! Whoop!

SHE LAUGHS

One more.

Yay! Oh, hello. I've just made my very own plastic-beaker tower.

Oh!

I'd better be careful. I don't want to knock them over.

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

-Hi, guys.

We've got a question for you.

Why don't tall buildings fall over?

Great question. Why don't tall buildings fall over?

We see lots of really tall buildings all around us

but how do they stay up? Come to my workshop and we'll investigate.

ALL: See you soon, Nina! Bye.

Bye.

I'm going to need some help to answer this one,

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK. Today's question is,

Why don't tall buildings fall over?

Which neuron will be most useful to help find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Oh, me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear. If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy but you can't tell,

-my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy whenever you eat!

It's Luke!

CHEERING

Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Cool, Nina. I'll be looking out to help you.

Today's question is, why don't tall buildings fall over?

Because tall buildings are something we can see,

Luke, our sight neuron, will be helping us.

But stand by, Neurons, I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the Engineers arrive.

James loves roasting marshmallows.

Joshua loves karate. Archie loves porridge.

A lot of cities have really tall buildings.

I've seen really tall buildings.

When I build a tall tower with blocks, it falls over.

So, today, for one day only,

James, Joshua and Archie become the Engineers!

-Hi, guys.

-ALL: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop. Thanks for your question -

why don't tall buildings fall over?

To find out, let's start by using our senses.

Whoo-whoo! A senses experiment! We're ready, Nina!

Making tall buildings can be very tricky.

Why do engineers build them?

Let's find out.

Now, this is a long, flat building.

James, I'd like you to look at it

and copy the shape of it with your body on this piece of paper.

Oh!

Well, that's a good way to make a long, flat shape.

Just lie down and relax.

Now, I'd like you to draw round him using these crayons.

Go for it.

Excellent work. Up you get, everyone.

Well done.

NINA LAUGHS

Now I'd like you to pretend to be another shape of building,

but this time a tall, thin building.

So, James, can you make that shape for me?

Very good. And can you guys draw around his feet?

Excellent! Let's look at your drawings.

Do you see the difference?

Lying down, James took up a lot more space

than when he was standing up.

He hasn't changed size, he's just changed position.

And it's the same with buildings.

Long, flat buildings take up a lot of space on the ground,

whereas tall buildings stand upright and take up far less.

This is useful in cities where it's very busy

and there's lots of buildings squeezed into a small space.

So let's make our own tall buildings. Follow me!

Let's see how high we can make our building.

NINA LAUGHS

Oh! Oh, no!

NINA LAUGHS

Joshua...

CHEERING

Going, going...

Oh!

Our tall buildings have fallen over.

And if something falls over, it means it isn't balanced.

So, as our buildings got taller, they were harder to balance.

And that's the same as real tall buildings.

They're hard to balance, too.

-The higher they get, the wobblier they can become.

-Like wobbly jelly!

Wibble-wobble! Wibble-wobble!

But we have lots of tall buildings that don't fall down.

How did engineers work out how to make them balance?

Let's go and look up at something to find out.

BELLE: Where do you think we're going today?

-OLLIE:

-Where can you look up something?

-FELIX:

-Well, that's easy. We must be going to the library

to look up something in a book.

LUKE: We're about to find out. Looks like we're here, everyone!

This is where we've come to look up!

LUKE: Whoa! That is a very, very tall building.

-It's very tall, isn't it?

-ALL: Yes.

This is Canary Wharf.

It's one of the tallest buildings in the country.

ALL: Wow!

It's the height of 55 double-decker buses all on top of each other.

ALL: Wow!

That's right.

If this building was lying down,

it would take up lots and lots of space on the ground

and there wouldn't be room for the other buildings.

But because it's standing up, it takes up less space on the ground

and we can still fit lots of offices and homes inside.

Does it look wobbly, like our buildings?

ALL: No!

Well, let's give it a push.

Everyone, let's push.

SHE GRUNTS

ALL GRUNT

NINA LAUGHS

No, no wobbles there. So, how do they make buildings less wobbly?

Let's do a little experiment to find out. Come with me.

Now, here we have three different-sized rectangular boxes.

We know from our building-blocks experiment

the taller the building, the harder it is to keep balanced.

Which one do you think is

most likely to fall over?

The tall blue one.

Well, let's see.

Let's pretend to be the wind

and we'll try and blow them over.

ALL BLOW

NINA LAUGHS

Oh!

Oh, well done.

And you were right - this building was much easier to blow over

because it's tall and thin and more difficult to balance -

because of something called balance points.

Balance points? What are balance points, Nina?

Well, Ollie, I have the perfect way to show you.

If you guys can take a box each...

I'd like you to draw a line

from one corner at the top

to the opposite corner at the bottom.

Excellent. Now draw another line between the other corners.

Well done, guys. They look fantastic.

Now, have a look over here because...

these are the balance points.

They're in the centre of the box, where the lines meet.

Looking a the lines on these boxes,

which one has the highest balance point?

The tall building.

Yes. Tall buildings have a high balance point

and short, flat buildings have a low balance point.

Because our tall building has a higher balance point,

it's easier to blow over.

To make a tall building less wobbly, engineers lower the balance point.

Look at this picture of Canary Wharf.

Some of the building is below ground,

so the balance point is lower, too.

The part of the building below the ground

is called the foundations.

Foundations help make a building less wobbly.

Let's go back to the workshop to find out how.

Have a look over here, boys.

Now, the grey bit on this building here will be our foundations.

The foundations are the bits of a building that go under the ground.

Let's put this building with the foundations

into this nice piece of grass here.

And the foundations fit underneath.

Oh.

And let's sit the building without foundations

just beside it here.

So they are the same height. The only difference is,

this one is pushed into the ground.

So let's see how wobbly they are.

-Joshua, take a big, deep breath...

-SHE BREATHES IN

..and after three - one, two, three, blow!

HE BLOWS NINA LAUGHS

And the red one.

HE BLOWS

Oh!

NINA LAUGHS

Oh, we easily knocked over the building without foundations.

But this one didn't move.

Not even if I give it a push.

Foundations also let the ground grip onto the bottom of the building.

Just like when we grip something...

we can hold it still. You try.

And give it a push. That's it.

How does it feel?

Hard to move.

It is, isn't it? The ground grips the bottom of the building

like our hands are doing to the rulers.

Foundations are engineers' way

of making sure that tall buildings don't fall over.

# Nina and the Neurons! #

So, your question was, why don't tall buildings fall over?

I think we've answered it.

We discovered that engineers added foundations to a building,

an extra part of a building that goes under the ground.

Foundations make a building less wobbly

by letting the ground grip onto the building

and help keep it up.

-So I hope that's answered your question.

-ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye!

You're welcome. Bye!

To know more about the science and engineering all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun.

-# Pulling.

-Pushing.

-Twisting.

-Mixing.

-# Drilling.

-Squeezing.

-Floating.

-Go engineering

# Go engineering!

# When you need to fly it, make it, shape it

-# Go engineering

-Go engineering!

# When you want to build, go engineering

# Engineering!

# When you've got to solve a problem but you don't know how to do it

# It's time to go engineering

# Engineering!

# When you want to lift it, stick it, pop it, bend it

# It's time to go engineering

# Engineering!

-# Go engineering

-Go engineering!

# When you need to fly it, make it, shape it

# Engineering!

-# Go engineering

-Go engineering!

# When you want to build, go engineering

# Go engineering! #

I've had a brilliant day.

I liked it when everyone's building blocks came tumbling down.

It's been such a great day, man.

I could hardly see the top of the building, it was so tall!

It's been a marvellous day.

The building with foundations was no pushover!

Engineers help to build the world around us.

They make things work and use science to solve problems.

See you again soon. Bye.

Bye, Nina!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd