Don't worry! We know not everyone is a natural born Scientist, but if you want to get on with buildings, you really do need to have at least some basics.
So we'll keep this as easy as we can.
Science is Everything
Every building is a complex mix of Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry & Biology.
The Internet is allowing for so much complete nonsense to be put across these days by the "online comedians" as we call them (online influencers as you might think of them) and it really is quite concerning.
When it comes to restoring, renovating and repairing period buildings a good level of science is required: it's required in knowing what the substrate that you are working to is comprised of and therefore what materials will work with or against (react
With) that substrate. So we'll start off with some very basic and easily relatable Physics, which are known as Newtons Laws Of Motion..
Newtons Third Law
States that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This means that pushing on an object causes that object to push back against you, the same amount but in the opposite direction..
Two modern day Isaac Newtons who you may recognise are Dr Brian Cox, and Prof Jim Al Khalili, both are very knowledgeable Physicists and both are very entertaining presenters, definitely worth watching their presentations if you haven't before.
Solids Liquids & Gasses
Basic School Sciences
We'll start with d
something that everyone knows: Water. We are taught that water is a liquid, and when it gets heated it changes to Steam (a Gas), and when it gets frozen it changes to Ice. (A solid). In recent times the melting of the polar ice has been blamed on sea levels rising, but that is certainly not what Science states. Next is a interesting experiment that you can do with your kids at home, or maybe as a teacher that you can do in class:
So the next time you hear "trust the science" it really is important that you know Science, and trust a scientist instead of a politician!
Atomic Physics
In School Physics we are focussed on molecular Physics but when we go higher into physics we encounter Atomic Physics (often today called: Quantum physics or Quantum Mechanics)
Atoms are incredibly tiny electro magnetic energy fields comprispng of a nucleus which is made up of protons and Neutrons, surrounded by Electrons.
These elements are electro magnetically charged meaning they are always on the go?
Atoms can also combine to form Chemical Compounds through Chemical Bonds, so now we're not talking about water, ice and steam anymore.
So because of Atoms it's fair to say that despite many people thinking that buildings are solids; many people are very wrong.
We have this video on our youtube channel, but it is not one of our own making. It is however a very nice, easy one to follow so rather than reinventing the wheel, we'll happily crediit the originator of this video.
No Building Is a solid
Every individual element of every individual building expands and contracts, and the most common causes of these occurrences are temperature and humidity.
As elements warm they get excited and expand, then as they cool they contract again, this is simple molecular science: us humans are made up of molecules and we tend to huddle up in the colder months to retain warmth, whereas we get hot in the warner months so we tend to strip off some clothing and get all excited resulting in summer BBQ's in the garden.
All buildings must be considered for expansion and contraction throughout the year, not just about now!h
When it rains the earth absorbs that rainwater and the earth expands, during summer that rainwater is evaporated back into the atmosphere so that more rain clouds can be formed to rain on us all over again. But of course we must accept that our buildings are constructed on foundations which are formed in the earth, meaning as the earth expands, the building is encountering a force from that ground expansion, so now we're back to Newtons Laws Of Motion.
All buildings contain a lot of timber elements, but they are really just dead trees! When a tree is living and growing it absorbs ground moisture through it's roots via natural capillaries, but once it's been cut down, dried out !seasoned) and put through a sawmill to make 'timber' those capillaries are still there inside that 'timber' and they will absorbmoisture through Capillary Action. Of course this in turn causes that 'timber' to expand in size, and to contract back again as that moisture is dried out again,
Metals also expand and contract through variations in temperature; they expand with heat and contract with cold
Back when we started out we had 'yard sticks' which were measuring sticks made to 1 yard long with inches in between (today we now work in metric). but the same laws of science still apply: we could measure a building element in summer, again in autumn, again in winter and again in spring, and we would always get 4 different measurements, obviously because of expansion and contraction of that timber yard stick plus the building element itself had been affected by temperature and humidity variations over 1 year.
That's enough to start with, We'll cover more another day which means:
you'll have to pop back for updates; the Chemistry knowledge needed for correct Decorating is very much needed from what we are seeing nowadays!