Hullart.com Blog tagged 'Engineering'

Pyramids of Egypt and the Mystery of Size

jim@hullart.com — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0100

One of the most interesting facts about the Egyptian Pyramids is the 'scale up and scale down' history of pyramid building. In just 60 years, based on historical accounts, the Egyptians went from a pyramid containing 330,000 cubic meters of material t0 one containing 2,600,000 cubic meters of material(Giza/ 4th Dynasty). In addition the complexity of construction progressed on a similar order. In the intervening time frame only two other pyramids were attempted and th [...]

NASA, Space and the New Direction for Development

jim@hullart.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0100

I applaud Obama's new direction for space exploration. It provides NASA with a focus for its mission. It will also help to foster the development of the commercial Space Industry. It brings clarity that has been missing in the past. This will allow the creation of new captial investment in Space thus accelerating progress.

Clarity is one of the missions that I always thought was primary in realtion to an effective goverments role. People&nb [...]

The Ruins of Antiquity, the ruins of the Modern Age

jim@hullart.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:00:00 +0100

As a part of the Burning Forest series I am creating a series of paintings depicting ruins of old and a vision of what the ruins of today might look like sometime in the not to distant future. The ruins of old in most cases reflect great architecture, character and the great materials used in construction. The ruins are as compelling as tghe original structures ( In some cases more compelling!). Of today's ruins I cannot say the same. In most cases I think they will look like [...]

Pyramids and the Power of Emptiness

jim@hullart.com — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0100

Lack of information, or emptiness, is one of the key precepts of Chinese aesthetics. It is the experience of having done the work of art that is important and not the work itself. Is that the case with the Pyramids? Was it more important to the builders to have done it than to have recorded the how and why? In the arts it is the undsaid that carries the energy through the piece. As Simon Leys relates in his book The Burning Forest,

" It should be observed [...]

The Mystery of Records and Purpose

jim@hullart.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:00:00 +0100

" Extant Egyptian records, whether written or pictorial, throw no light on the methods employed by the builders of the pyramids either in planning or in constructing their monumental works."

So says I.E.S. Edwards in his famous book The Pyramids or Egypt. Logically this makes no sense. But whatever information they used to construct the pyramids on the Giza Plateau must also have been quickly lost as the preceding contructions reveal a lack of the same sophistication [...]

The Pyramids and Perfection

jim@hullart.com — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:00:00 +0100

As reported by Petrie, in his classic book from the 1800's on the Pyramids, the equisite detail and painstaking pursuit of perfection make these constructions both inspiring and enigmatic. A quote from the book.

" Hence the mean thickness of the [...]

Pyramid Construction and the Size of the Building Blocks

jim@hullart.com — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:00:00 +0100

A question that has always haunted me is why the builders used such large blocks in the construction? Logic would tell us that if at their size and weight(minimum 2.5 tons) it was difficult for them to handle they would have reduced their size to facilitate construction. The only conclusion that I can make is that they must not have had trouble working with such large masses or else the construction plan itself required the larger size. Why not make them the size of standard building blocks? [...]

Pyramid Math -- Part 1

jim@hullart.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:00:00 +0100

Not too long ago a program on Nova spotlighted a successful attempt to reconstruct a modern day pyramid near the great pyramids on the Giza Plateau. Over a several week(3) period, using the same methods they thought were used in the construcion of the Giza Pyramids, they were successful in building a pyramid of 186 stones(same size as the smallest in the Great Pyramid)that was 20 feet high. I decided to compare the performance on this new pyramid with the Great Pyramid to see how l [...]

Pyramid Math -- Part 2

jim@hullart.com — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:00:00 +0100

How many blocks per hour would the builders of the Great Pyramid have had to lay if it was built in 20 years?

Assumptions

20 years
365 days a year
no days off
2.4M blocks

1. 8 hour work day = 41 per hour
2. 10 hour work day = 32.9 per hour
3. 12 hour work day = 27.4 per hour

If this is true then we need to know what strategies they utilized to be this productive! This is the BIG STORY because if they were this productive then w [...]