Baths of Caracalla
Rome, Italy
Late Empire
Rome, Italy
Late Empire
The Romans were inventive people. They enjoyed looking at what the Greeks had accomplished and then expanding the Greek’s concepts with their own. One aspect of the Greeks that they looked towards was their architecture. They looked for more creative and efficient was to construct buildings so that they can be the best possible piece. One architectural inventions was the groin vault. The groin vault was constructed so that two barrel vaults intersected each other and were able to support one another. Due to Roman ingenious, these new vaults weighed less and did not require nearly as much buttressing. So, now the new arches used much less support than all those that preceded them. One of the grandest examples of groin vaults is shown at the Baths of Caracalla. The baths were a huge architectural feat to show off imperial funds in order to win the public’s favor. The building was excessively large, and groin vaults were the answer to supporting it. These vaults also allowed in sunlight in so that the baths were illuminated with natural light. Unfortunately, over time the groin vaults have crumbled.
The creation of groin vaults demonstrates a skill that the Romans used often, critical thinking. Roman’s looked at and compared many different styles of arches and compared the good points in order to be able to construct the most effective piece of architecture. The ability to think critically is not only important to the Romans, but also to marine biologists. Marine biologists need to be able to come up with and construct experiments. To do this they must decide what information they wish to gather, and then conduct the experiment. For example, if a scientist wanted to know the effects of pH on fish, they must choose what particular effect they wish to see. In order for this to happen, they must look over previous experiments and find the goods and the bads. Once they discover others past failures, or successes, they can determine what exactly they want to discover. They can also use these examples to see what methods for getting this type of information works best. Once they do this, the scientist can develop exactly what effects they hope to see from their experiment and then carry it out. They can reconstruct their own experiments to fit their own needs, like with the groin vaults.
The creation of groin vaults demonstrates a skill that the Romans used often, critical thinking. Roman’s looked at and compared many different styles of arches and compared the good points in order to be able to construct the most effective piece of architecture. The ability to think critically is not only important to the Romans, but also to marine biologists. Marine biologists need to be able to come up with and construct experiments. To do this they must decide what information they wish to gather, and then conduct the experiment. For example, if a scientist wanted to know the effects of pH on fish, they must choose what particular effect they wish to see. In order for this to happen, they must look over previous experiments and find the goods and the bads. Once they discover others past failures, or successes, they can determine what exactly they want to discover. They can also use these examples to see what methods for getting this type of information works best. Once they do this, the scientist can develop exactly what effects they hope to see from their experiment and then carry it out. They can reconstruct their own experiments to fit their own needs, like with the groin vaults.