🏗 Dig Deep with Gnomes

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Buckle up, folks—because we’ve got mathematical bridges, gnome-powered city-building, and even a roundabout bridge (because apparently, straight lines are for quitters). We’ll take a stroll through ancient engineering wonders, marvel at SpaceX’s giant game of catch, and ask ourselves the burning question: is there anything LEGO can’t do? Plus, Paddy and I got lost in the woods... again.

Let’s dive into it 👇

A huge thank you to everyone who entered this week's Ecognomix giveaway! 🥳

And now, the moment you've been spamming that refresh button for...

🥁 Cue the drumroll... 🥁

The lucky winners of Ecognomix are... Ferb, Nat, and Blazer! 🎉

Congrats! Check your emails for those Steam keys and I’ll see you at the bottom of the mines! 💼💰

I’m giving away keys every week, so stay tuned and enter this week’s poll below for a shot at next week’s Game Giveaway! 👇

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

The Mathematical Bridge

Today we’re heading to Cambridge, home of the Mathematical Bridge—a masterpiece that’s equal parts engineering and mathematical genius. This wooden footbridge connects two parts of Queens' College and looks like an arch, but here’s the kicker: it’s made entirely of straight timbers! Because why make things easy when you can confuse architects by not using curves?

The bridge was designed in 1749 by the engineer William Etheridge and built by James Essex, so you know it’s solid. It’s been rebuilt twice, but—unlike some overly ambitious architects—the engineers made sure to keep it functional instead of just "pretty." The structure uses a smart system of tangent and radial trussing that lets the wood take on all the forces, making it self-supporting.

Oh, and here’s a fun fact for the mythbusters out there: some people believe Sir Isaac Newton built this thing without nuts or bolts. Spoiler alert: Newton died 22 years before it was even constructed, and yes, bolts were used from the start—because even back then, engineers knew better than to leave something that important to architects' "vision."

⚡ Cool Links

🚀 SpaceX successfully catches super heavy booster with chopsticks
SpaceX just pulled off the wildest catch ever, snagging a 70m booster mid-air with their chopstick-like "Mechazilla." One Redditor summed it up perfectly: "that's a 70m building they caught in the air".

🧻 Shredding Paper with Lego Gears
The Brick Experiment Channel just built a fully functional paper shredder entirely out of LEGO! Seriously, is there anything you can’t do with those bricks?

🌉 The world’s oldest bridges
Embark on a journey to explore the world’s oldest bridges—engineering marvels that have survived for thousands of years, and probably outlasted a few architects' egos along the way!

🧸 What if Toy Story was a tower defense game?
A while back, I dove into ToyShire, where you defend your turf with toy armies in a wild tower defense adventure! Build up your toy towers, fend off waves of enemies, and save the world one action figure at a time!

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

Completely lost in the woods…

So, me and Paddy got completely lost in the woods. No paths. No clues. Just an engineer, his apprentice, a camera, and a whole lot of confusion.

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

This week’s indie game spotlight is EcoGnomix, a quirky blend of city-building, mining, and roguelike puzzle mechanics that’ll keep you hooked.

You send your team of gnomes underground to loot mystical caves (because why not trust the little guys with the dangerous stuff?), then use their hard-earned treasures to build a cute little city above. Of course, you’ll need to keep going deeper and deeper—kind of like when you say, “just one more level” and it’s suddenly 3 AM.

Shoutout to the winners of this week's giveaway! If you didn’t win, don’t worry—you can grab it on Steam here. Happy digging!

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

The engineers down in Uruguay have gone full circle—literally! The Circular Laguna Garzón Bridge is almost a roundabout in bridge form, because why settle for straight lines!?

The bridge is meant to slow traffic down, which, let’s be honest, probably started as an architect’s bright idea: "Let's make it artsy and really inconvenient at the same time!" Classic. But hey, the engineers swooped in and made it work. It’s structurally sound, functional, and nobody's flying off into the lagoon, so props to them.

Final Score: 7.8/10 – Points off for making us feel like we’re stuck on a hamster wheel.

🏗 r/realcivilengineer Spotlight

Thanks to u/Gotelc for posting about this very strong formation of cats.

🤔 Thoughts from an Engineer