engineering

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome rather than just read about it. In short: The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, was a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Key takeaways

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, was a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League's (NFL) Minnesota Vikings and Major League Baseball's (MLB) Minnesota Twins, and Memorial Stadium, the former home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. The Metrodome was the home of the Vikings from 1982 to 2013, the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Minnesota Timberwolves in their 1989–90 inaugural season, the Golden Gophers football team from 1982 to 2008, and the occasional home of the Golden Gophers baseball team from 1985 to 2010 and their full-time home in 2012. It was also the home of the Minnesota Strikers of the North American Soccer League in 1984. The Vikings played at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium for the 2014 and 2015 NFL seasons, ahead of the planned opening of U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016. The stadium had a fiberglass fabric roof that was self-supported by air pressure and was the third major sports facility to have this feature (the first two being the Pontiac Silverdome and the Carrier Dome). The Metrodome was similar in design to the former RCA Dome and to BC Place, though BC Place was reconfigured with a retractable roof in 2010. The Metrodome was the inspiration for the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The stadium was the only facility to have hosted a Super Bowl (1992), World Series (1987, 1991), MLB All-Star Game (1985), and NCAA Division I Basketball Final Four (1992, 2001). The Metrodome had several nicknames such as "The Dome", "The Thunderdome", "The Homer Dome", and "The Technodome". Preparation for the demolition of the Metrodome began the day after the facility hosted its final home game for the Minnesota Vikings on December 29, 2013, and the roof was deflated and demolition began on January 18, 2014. The Metrodome was torn down in sections while construction of U.S. Bank Stadium began.

History

Background

By the early 1970s, the Minnesota Vikings were unhappy with Metropolitan Stadium's (the Met) relatively small capacity for football. Before the completion of the AFL–NFL merger, the NFL declared that stadiums with a capacity under 50,000 were not adequate. The Met never held more than 49,700 people for football, and could not be expanded. At the time, the biggest stadium in the area was the University of Minnesota's Memorial Stadium. However, the Vikings were unwilling to be tenants in a college football stadium even on a temporary basis, and demanded a new venue. Supporters of a dome also believed that the Minnesota Twins would benefit from a climate-controlled stadium to insulate the team from harsh Minnesota weather later in their season. The Met would have likely needed to be replaced anyway, as it was not well maintained. Broken railings and seats could be seen in the upper deck by the 1970s; by its final season, they had become a distinct safety hazard. Construction success of other domed stadiums, particularly the Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit, paved the way for voters to approve funding for a new stadium. Downtown Minneapolis was beginning a revitalization program, and the return of professional sports from suburban Bloomington was seen as a major success story; a professional team had not been based in downtown Minneapolis since the Minneapolis Lakers left for Los Angeles in 1960.

Construction Construction on the Metrodome began on December 20, 1979, and was funded by a limited hotel-motel and liquor tax, local business donations, and payments established within a special tax district near the stadium site. Uncovering the Dome by Amy Klobuchar (now a U.S. Senator) describes the 10-year effort to build the venue. The stadium was named in memory of former mayor of Minneapolis, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who died in 1978. The building's construction was designed by Bangladeshi-American architect Fazlur Rahman Khan, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The Metrodome itself cost $68 million to build—significantly under budget—totaling around $124 million with infrastructure and other costs associated with the project added. It was a somewhat utilitarian facility, though not quite as spartan as Metropolitan Stadium. One stadium official once said that all the Metrodome was designed to do was "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home."

1980s roof incidents Five times in the stadium's history, heavy snows or other weather conditions significantly damaged the roof, with four of the instances causing it to deflate. Four of the five incidents occurred within the stadium's first five years of operation: On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated. It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, because of a tear caused by a crane used in snow removal. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular-season game of the 1982 NFL season. In the spring following that same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by late-season heavy snow, and the scheduled Twins game with the California Angels was postponed. On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning versus the Angels; however, the roof did not deflate.

2010 roof incident and replacement

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome

In research: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1982 establishments in Minnesota, 2014 disestablishments in Minnesota, Air-supported structures, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in simple terms?

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, commonly called the Metrodome, was a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Why does Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.