engineering

Stork Fountain

Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain rather than just read about it. In short: The Stork Fountain is located on Amagertorv in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a present to Crown Prince Frederik (later Frederik VIII) and Crown Princess Louise in connection with their silver wedding anniversary in 1894.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Stork Fountain is located on Amagertorv in central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a present to Crown Prince Frederik (later Frederik VIII) and Crown Princess Louise in connection with their silver wedding anniversary in 1894. It depicts three storks about to set off. Since 1950, it has been a tradition that newly graduated midwives dance around the fountain.

History In 1888, the Society for the Beautification of Copenhagen announced a competition for a fountain on the prominent square to celebrate the upcoming silver wedding anniversary of Crown Prince Frederik (VIII) and Crown Princess Louise on 28 July 1894. The competition was won by Edvard Petersen and Vilhelm Bissen. Another entry in the competition was Thorvald Bindesbøll and Joakim Skovgaard's Dragon Fountain, which was later erected in the City Hall Square. Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint proposed a fountain depicting a merry Amager farmer sitting on a cabbagehead. The fountain was inaugurated in 1894.

Design

The fountain consists of a nine-sided basin of stone. It collects water from the bronze bowl at the top and the three small cascades around the edges of the central pedestal. The pedestal is decorated with reliefs of aquatic plants; in the basin, there are frogs sitting on dock leaves, spewing jets of water. On a shelf on the pedestal stand three storks ready to take flight in each of three different directions. A common urban legend holds that the birds depicted are herons. In 2008, representatives from the Danish Ornithological Society stated that this is not true and that the birds are indeed storks.

Colding-Jorgensen experiment In early 2009, as part of a classroom experiment on viral communication, slacktivism, and social media, Anders Colding-Jørgensen, a lecturer from the University of Copenhagen, created a Facebook protest group against the demolition of the Stork Fountain. In a week it managed to attract 10,000 supporters and after two weeks it had 27,000 members. However, the cause was purely fictitious; there was no threat of demolition and the fountain is in fact a listed monument.

Cultural references During the late 1960s, the fountain became a popular meetingplace for members of the protest movements. Danish folk singer Cæsar received mainstream popularity with his protest song named Storkespringvandet (Stork Fountain) about police brutality. The song's lyrics, written by Thøger Olesen, were set to the popular Scottish nursery rhyme Ally Bally Bee (Coulter's Candy).

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stork Fountain

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain

In research: Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain 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: Stork Fountain is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1894 sculptures, Animal sculptures in Copenhagen, Buildings and structures completed in 1894, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Stork Fountain in simple terms?

Why does Stork Fountain 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 Stork Fountain?

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 Stork Fountain.