science

Skyline

Skyline is a science 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 Skyline rather than just read about it. In short: A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

A skyline is the outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the land. City skylines serve as a pseudo-fingerprint as no two skylines are alike. For this reason, news and sports programs, television shows, and movies often display the skyline of a city to set a location. The term The Sky Line of New York City was introduced in 1896, when it was the title of a color lithograph by Charles Graham for the color supplement of the New York Journal. Paul D. Spreiregen, FAIA, has called a [city] skyline "a physical representation [of a city's] facts of life ... a potential work of art ... its collective vista."

Features

High-rise buildings

High-rise buildings, including skyscrapers, are the fundamental feature of urban skylines. Both contours and cladding (brick or glass) make an impact on the overall appearance of a skyline.

Towers

Towers from different eras make for contrasting skylines. San Gimignano, in Tuscany, Italy, has been described as having an "unforgettable skyline" with its competitively built towers.

Remote locations

Some remote locations have notably striking skylines, created either by nature or by sparse human settlement in an environment not conducive to housing significant populations.

Use in media Skylines are often used as backgrounds and establishing shots in film, television programs, news websites, and in other forms of media.

Subjective ranking

Skylines may be ranked based on subjective criteria. Skylines are often ranked by height and size, such as by the number of buildings taller than a certain height. The article list of cities with the most skyscrapers ranks cities based on the number of skyscrapers that are taller than 150 metres (490 ft). Emporis was one such service, which used height and other data to give point values to buildings and added them together for skylines. The three cities it ranked highest in 2012 were Hong Kong, New York City, and Singapore.

See also Cityscape Skyscraper Index List of cities with the most skyscrapers

References

Further reading Emporis ranking of cities by the visual impact of their skylines Attoe, Wayne (1981). Skylines: understanding and molding urban silhouettes. Wiley. ISBN 9780471279402. Bacon, Edmund (1967). Design of Cities. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-14-004236-8. Lim, Bill; Heath, Tom (1993). Hayman H. (ed.). "What is skyline: a quantitative approach". Architectural Science: Past, Present and Future, Proceedings of the Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association: 23–32. Ford, Larry R. (1976). "The urban skyline as a city classification system". Journal of Geography. 75 (3): 154–164. Bibcode:1976JGeog..75..154F. doi:10.1080/00221347608980594.

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Skyline

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Skyline claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Skyline 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 Skyline 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 Skyline

In research: Skyline appears in science 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 Skyline 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: Skyline is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Architectural terminology, Cities, Cityscapes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Skyline 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 Skyline in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Skyline 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 Skyline out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Skyline in simple terms?

Why does Skyline matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Skyline?

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 Skyline.