Physics is Everywhere Essay :: Essays Papers

Physics is Everywhere Essay Ever since I was a young boy I’ve been fascinated with pyramids. I remember watching a Discovery Channel special on the ancient Egyptian king Imhotep when I was very young, and being thrilled. The idea of geometrically perfect structures of enormous size and weight, built by men without any modern machines piqued my interest at a very early age. Fortunately, when I was eleven I got a chance to see the pyramids firsthand when I took a family vacation to Egypt. As a human being, I don’t think it’s possible to stand in front of one of the Great Pyramids and not be in awe. I mean, skyscrapers are cool and everything, but there truly is nothing like looking up at something more massive than anything you’ve ever seen, and considering that it was built thousands of years ago. Now that I am older and wiser, and have a grip on basic physics principles, thanks to NATS 1223, I am prepared to discuss the core physics principles that were used in the building of the pyramids. There are a few important steps to building a pyramid, and at least a couple of them deal with topics that we have already covered in class. So let’s take a look at them. Unfortunately, if there was ever an ancient record of how the pyramids were built, it was probably destroyed when the library in Alexandria was burned to the ground (Rhodes). So, we kind of had to work backwards to figure it out. There is some debate among scholars as to how the pyramids were built. What everyone can agree on is this: first, the pyramid was designed and the blocks had to be cut (which we will not deal with in this analysis). Next, the blocks had to be moved up to the general location that they would be placed on the pyramid. For this, some type of ramp was absolutely necessary. The individual blocks were so massive relative to their volume that it would be physically impossible to place the amount of men around it that were necessary to lift it—and even if they could lift it, they would need a ramp to walk up, otherwise life would be very difficult. The debate in this area is over what type of ramps were used: linear ramps, staircase ramps, spiral ram ps, zigzag ramps, and interior ramps (Shaw).