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Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:19 pm
by tj
The casing stones got me thinking a little bit.
The lateral surface area of the pyramids in question is given by
1/2 * perimeter * slant height
Using the values of 481' for the height and 754' base per side
1/2 * 754 * 4 * slant height
Our old buddy the Pythagorean theorem can be used to find the slant height
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
so
481^2 + (754/2)^2 = c^2
c = sqrt(231361 + 142129) = sqrt(373490) = 611
and then
1/2 * 754 * 4 * 611 = 921388 square feet.
If each stone was only a square foot and we layed them end to end, they would stretch for about 175 miles!
Apologies in advance for errors in calculation or reasoning.
Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 10:54 pm
by Minimalist
I recall hearing somewhere that there were 144,000 casing stones on the GP.
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:07 am
by Frank Harrist
Minimalist wrote:I hope Frank likes this picture of the quarry.
If it were so easy to move a 5,000 pound stone uphill on a sled why don't they just do it and prove that it is no big deal.
As one of Murphy's Laws states: "Everything is easy for the man who doesn't have to do it himself."
I see room for at least 7 teams in just that one section of wall.
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:50 pm
by Beagle
How many people on a team?
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:19 pm
by Minimalist
Beagle wrote:How many people on a team?
And did they use the Designated Hitter?
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:22 pm
by Beagle
No - it was Bosnian ball
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 6:30 pm
by Minimalist
They cheat.
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:52 am
by Frank Harrist
Ok, call 'em crews.
DH is for pussies!
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:42 pm
by Tech
Ok everybody is coming up with time frames and procedures and lots of maybes how the GP could have been done , none of them come close to explaining positioning such large blocks in a 4 minute time 24/7 .
However , as I asked before what about the huge blocks used at Baalbek
I read that we could not move the last block left in the quarry approx 1200 tons with all the technology we have today, so how did they do it with only supposed tools at their disposal . I dont subscribe to Hancocks theories as such , but obviously they knew something we dont.
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 1:49 pm
by Minimalist
Tech, the means to move the Baalbek stones are so far beyond our capabilities at the moment that it would fall into the realm of magic, as Arthur C. Clarke noted: Any Sufficiently Advanced Science Is Indistinguishable From Magic Don't forget. They didn't just move them, they RAISED them.
Hell....we can't even figure out how to move comparatively little stones quickly.
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:28 am
by Katherine Reece
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:42 am
by Minimalist
Fine, Kath. Then how about a demonstration of workers pulling such a stone up a ramp...workers who are either barefoot or wearing sandals, btw, in the Egyptian sun. For every course of stone after the first, they would have had to raise a ramp.
Oh, and they have to do it in less than 4 minutes in order to meet the Egyptologists' own parameters.
Scientists should be looking to prove their theories.
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:47 am
by Katherine Reece
Minimalist wrote:You make a good point but I was approaching the problem from the other end.
In order to finish it in 20 years they had to lay one stone every 4 minutes for 20 years....
At some point, by deduction, that means that they also had to cut a block every 4 minutes and transport one every 4 minutes or there would have been a bottleneck.
Frankly, looking at it from the finished end or the starting point, the idea of positioning one block every 4 minutes is ridiculous.
I would think that when doing the ground preparation and alignments that they might have used their brains and begun quarrying? It just seems to me that as organized as these people were that getting a good head start on the blocks would be considered.
Also you have to look at it as an assembly line ... consider that using an assembly line Ford turned out a Model A car every 49 seconds
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:49 am
by Frank Harrist
Wow! the mathematics made my eyes start to glaze over, but I understood enough to know that ramps would help a lot and a rope system which lowered a block into place could be pulling another block up. Cool! Surely it isn't that simple, though.
Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:52 am
by Katherine Reece
Minimalist wrote:Fine, Kath
Katherine or Kat please
. Then how about a demonstration of workers pulling such a stone up a ramp...workers who are either barefoot or wearing sandals, btw, in the Egyptian sun. For every course of stone after the first, they would have had to raise a ramp.
Did you see "This Old Pyramid" it had some nice demostrations. Also (another culture) the Spanish recorded watching the Inca haul massive stones uphill using brute force.