DID YOU KNOW?
The Eiffel Tower is NOT always the same height.
In summer…
The Eiffel Tower gets taller by 15 cm.
That's roughly the height of a
pencil case
.
But How?
There's no construction work.
No extra pieces.
No optical illusion.
It's the heat.
The Eiffel Tower Is Made of Iron
And when iron gets hot…
it expands.
The Eiffel Tower Is Made of Iron
And when iron gets hot…
it expands.
Now imagine 7,300 tonnes of iron…
All expanding in the summer heat.
Even tiny expansion across the structure
can add up to
centimetres.
And the Sun can make it lean, too.
When one side heats more than the other,
the tower can tilt slightly.
Then comes the cold…
As temperatures fall, the iron
contracts
. The tower loses those extra centimetres.
So technically…
The Eiffel Tower has a
SUMMER HEIGHT
and a
WINTER HEIGHT.
NEXT TIME YOU SEE EIFFEL TOWER
Remember:
The Eiffel Tower you're looking at today
may not be exactly the same height tomorrow.
Science changes even the world's most famous landmarks.
Learn more