I just watched a special again on How They Built the Pyramids. In it three guys, An archeologist, an architect and a stonemason, built a little pyramid using small stone blocks. Well, a lot smaller than most Pyramid blocks but still obviously some heavy little things.
It's neat, they go into all the problems they encounter and show how they could be overcome, using only the tech available to the Ancient Egyptians. There's just one problem. What they're doing is not really illustrative at all of what was actually done. It can't be.
The reason is the square/cube law. You've probably heard of it and you can look it up in Wiki if you haven't. All it says is that if you have something and you increase it's LINEAR dimensions by 10, you will increase it's volume, and hence it's weight, by the CUBE of 10, or 1000.
If a 1x1x1 stone weighs 100 lbs, a 10 by 10 by 10 stone will weigh 100,000, yes?
And that much weight difference is a qualitative thing. You won't be able to use wooden rollers of the same size, you'll crush them. You might not even be able to use wood at all.
This is a well-known thing to SF writers. It's why we can't really have 10 foot ants (they couldn't walk or breathe) or 50 foot and 5 inch people. Not without major structural changes that pretty much make them not people anymore.
Now I can see an archeologist not knowing this, and maybe even a stonemason, but an architect? I'm sure not hiring him for any skyscrapers.
Seriously, this was a NatGeo Special and I'm sure some of you saw it. Did they cover this and I just missed it or what? Could be I just don't understand Square/Cube and I should if I want my Giant Crocodile in a Typhoon eating San Francisco to fit in with established science (I'm having him be made of living carbon fiber, that should work). Can anyone help?
It's neat, they go into all the problems they encounter and show how they could be overcome, using only the tech available to the Ancient Egyptians. There's just one problem. What they're doing is not really illustrative at all of what was actually done. It can't be.
The reason is the square/cube law. You've probably heard of it and you can look it up in Wiki if you haven't. All it says is that if you have something and you increase it's LINEAR dimensions by 10, you will increase it's volume, and hence it's weight, by the CUBE of 10, or 1000.
If a 1x1x1 stone weighs 100 lbs, a 10 by 10 by 10 stone will weigh 100,000, yes?
And that much weight difference is a qualitative thing. You won't be able to use wooden rollers of the same size, you'll crush them. You might not even be able to use wood at all.
This is a well-known thing to SF writers. It's why we can't really have 10 foot ants (they couldn't walk or breathe) or 50 foot and 5 inch people. Not without major structural changes that pretty much make them not people anymore.
Now I can see an archeologist not knowing this, and maybe even a stonemason, but an architect? I'm sure not hiring him for any skyscrapers.
Seriously, this was a NatGeo Special and I'm sure some of you saw it. Did they cover this and I just missed it or what? Could be I just don't understand Square/Cube and I should if I want my Giant Crocodile in a Typhoon eating San Francisco to fit in with established science (I'm having him be made of living carbon fiber, that should work). Can anyone help?
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