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Inside the Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world (located in Taipei, Taiwan), you’ll find all the things you’d expect in a skyscraper of such magnitude as well as one surprising addition. Along with fantastic sky-high prime office space, restaurants, and the other trappings of modern mega-skyscraper design, you’ll also find a giant pendulum.
Let us dispense with the layman’s terms though: however much like a giant pendulum the enormous 728 ton stepped-sphere shape in the heart of the building might sway back and forth in an uncanny way like a futuristic pendulum, it has a more proper name. It’s a “tuned mass damper” and not just any tuned mass damper, mind you, but the largest in the world.
The device is carefully designed to offset the effects of wind on the enormous building.