Cambridge, UK

Cambridge, UK
January 2, 2010

We headed out to King's Cross Station to take the 45-60 minute train to Cambridge. We arrived hopped on the Citi bus #3 and landed in the City Center.

IT WAS SNOWING! IT WAS FREEZING! So we got a coffee and then hopped on the city sightseeing tour bus. We need to start having better weather for these road trips!

On this bus I learned more about Cambridge and its education system than I will ever need to know. That city is basically a Think Tank.

We also visited the American Cemetery, it is considered to be American soil & is said to be the only American memorial within the British Isles. It was nice to see the American flag. If stuff goes haywire while we are here you can find Mike and I there.

I will begin with King's College:
Founded in 1441, the college's formal name is "The King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge". It is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the university. King's was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. His first design was modest, but by 1445 was intended to be a magnificent display of royal patronage. There were to be a Provost and seventy scholars, occupying a substantial site in central Cambridge whose drastic clearance involved the closure of several streets.

The unofficial Tompkins Table comparing academic performance ranked King's nineteenth out of a total of twenty-nine rated colleges at the University of Cambridge in 2008; the college's position has fluctuated between tenth and twenty-first over the years 2000–2008.

Time Magazine published, in 2000, a list of what it considered the most 'influential and important' people of the twentieth century. In a list of one hundred names, King's was the only European institution that could claim two: Alan Turing and John Maynard Keynes who had been both students and fellows at the college. Other alumni of King's College have included prime ministers, archbishops, presidents and the novelist E.M. Forster. More recently they have included authors Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, politician Charles Clarke, journalist Johann Hari, folk musician John Spiers and comedian David Baddiel.

Montague Rhodes James, celebrated ghost story writer and mediaevalist, spent much of his life at King's as student, don and Provost. Many of his finest stories were read at Christmas to friends in his rooms in the College.

Once someone has been admitted to the College, they become a member for life. For this reason, King's alumni are referred to as 'Non Resident Members'.

The Mathematical Bridge: Its pretty cool. It was cooler prior to some kids taking it apart though and now it had to be bolted together.

The Mathematical Bridge is the popular name of a wooden bridge across the River Cam, between two parts of Queens' College, Cambridge. Its official name is simply the Wooden Bridge.

The bridge was designed by William Etheridge, and built by James Essex in 1749. It has been rebuilt on two occasions, in 1866 and in 1905, but has kept the same overall design.

The original "mathematical bridge" was another bridge of the same design, also designed by James Essex, crossing the Cam between Trinity and Trinity Hall, where Garret Hostel bridge now stands.

Mathematical explanation:

The arrangement of timbers is a series of tangents that describe the arc of the bridge, with radial members to tie the tangents together and triangulate the structure, making it rigid and self supporting. This type of structure, technically tangent and radial trussing, is an efficient structural use of timber, and was also used for the timber supporting arches used for building stone bridges.

Myths:

Popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts. Various stories relate how at some point in the past either students or fellows of the University attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together, and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts. In reality, bolts or the equivalent are an inherent part of the design. When it was first built, iron spikes were driven into the joints from the outer side, where they could not be seen from the inside of the parapets, explaining why bolts were thought to be an addition to the original. Isaac Newton died in 1727, 22 years before the bridge was constructed.

Cambridge University:

The University of Cambridge, located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe.

The university grew out of an association of scholars in the city of Cambridge that was formed, early records suggest, in 1209 by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute with townsfolk there. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are often jointly referred to as "Oxbridge". In addition to cultural and practical associations as a historic part of British society, the two universities also have a long history of rivalry with each other.

Academically, Cambridge is consistently ranked in the world's top five universities and as a premier leading university in Europe by numerous media and academic rankings. The University's alumni include 85 Nobel Laureates as of 2009.

Cambridge University has over the course of its history built up a sizeable number of alumni who are notable in their fields, both academic, and in the wider world. Officially, affiliates of Cambridge University have won a total of 84 Nobel Prizes, more than any other university according to some counts, as well as eight Fields Medals.

In addition to a long and distinguished tradition in mathematics and the sciences, Cambridge University has educated:

* 15 British Prime Ministers, including Robert Walpole (First Prime Minister of Great Britain).
* At least twenty-three Heads of State or Heads of Government have attended Cambridge University, including three Prime Ministers of India, two Prime Ministers of Singapore, two Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka, Stanley Bruce (Prime Minister of Australia) and Tunku Abdul Rahman (first Prime Minister of Malaysia).

Do you feel smarter now?

Note* I borrowed some pictures from the internet for this post because on the day we went there was NO way to get a good picture.

Cheers,
WMMc