Does the Eiffel Tower lean into the shade when it's sunny outside?

All tall steel structures, particularly radio towers and 'cell' towers, lean away from the sun slightly.
The reason is the uneven heating of the structure. The sunny side becomes heated and expands slightly, while the shaded side remains cool.
The effect is that during the course of a clear sunny day, the direction toward which the tip of the tower points describes a part of a small circle in the sky.
This effect can become troublesome when a large, high-gain antenna with a very narrow beamwidth is mounted on a tall unguyed 'monopole'. The pole can deflect so much during a day that the antenna wanders away from its best pointing direction, and its transmitted and receive signals decrease or "fade" substantially.

Answered by AL2006 | 2024-06-10

The Eiffel Tower, made of iron, does indeed expand and contract in response to changes in temperature. This phenomenon is due to the thermal expansion of materials, which in the case of steel, leads to a change in length proportional to the original length and the temperature change.
Considering the original height of the Eiffel Tower is 321 meters, and assuming a uniform expansion of steel, an increase of 15°C in temperature could make the tower taller by several centimeters due to thermal expansion. However, this does not result in the tower leaning into the shade, but rather it simply expands slightly in all directions.

Answered by QWCyan | 2024-06-19

The Eiffel Tower can lean slightly but not into the shade; it typically leans away from the sun due to thermal expansion. This occurs as the metal on the sunny side heats and expands more than the shaded side. However, the effect is minimal and often not noticeable.
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Answered by AL2006 | 2025-01-13