Re: Pyramidiocy (was Re: Strange Maths)
Nathaniel Tagg (ntagg@uoguelph.ca)
27 Jul 1995 17:56:46 GMT
: To lift a heavy stone you use several counterweighted cranes which lift
: one end at a time, dividing the load in two, and then place cribbing and
: do the other end. There is an interesting example given by Budge of a
: Pharoah who to ensure the gentle lifting of an important obelisk had his
: son tied to the top while it was lifted.
To do so, you need a crane, though: a fulcrum, a place to put
your pully. This structure has to able to bear the loads of both mass
and countermass, as well as the rope and whatever stress is needed to
haul the thing up and manuever it. For the pieces of rock we're talking
about, you would require some sofisticated metallurgy to construct such a
load-bearer. Or a bigger pyramid right next door...
--
Nathaniel Tagg Physics grad student University of Guelph
"The chances of a neutrino actually hitting something as it
travels through all this howling emptiness are roughly comparable to that
of dropping a ball bearing at random from a cruising 747 and hitting,
say, an egg sandwich." -- Douglas Adams, _Mostly_Harmless_
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