r/machinesinaction 21h ago

"We could never construct the pyramids, even with today's tools.”. Today's tools:

2.0k Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

121

u/Regular-Let1426 21h ago

Fun fact:

"The Three Gorges Dam, with its massive reservoir, has been found to slightly slow down Earth's rotation by 0.06 microseconds per day, due to the redistribution of water mass and its effect on the planet's moment of inertia"

21

u/slo1111 19h ago

The next one is going to be 3 times bigger

10

u/haby001 14h ago

And be sponsored by nestle

38

u/Fippy-Darkpaw 20h ago

Someone needs to build a pyramid so people stop saying this.

5

u/SpeedRunner33333 3h ago

THIS is what billionaires are for!

71

u/sidrasfoo 21h ago

If building new pyramids was tied to making money….it would be done all over and very quickly

2

u/clumsydope 2h ago

We already built two One in Vegas, the other Louvre

62

u/killaluggi 20h ago

AnD The RoMaNs HeAd rOaDs ThAt LaStEd fOr ThousNd Of YeaRs.....

Yea bro, com on, let a view 40t lorrys run over it for a view years and see how it holds up..... Alternatively you can take a srtech of new modern road and let only pedestrians and horse drawn carts over it, see how long it takes till potholes and ridges show up, your great, great, great grand kits can finish that report in a view decades

10

u/skaldrir69 20h ago

Curious… how would one achieve great great great grand kids in a few decades?

6

u/killaluggi 20h ago

20+20+20+20+20=100 years = 10 decades

10=<99

10= "a view"

15

u/userhs6716 17h ago

But why do you keep saying "view" instead of "few"?

35

u/vanmac82 21h ago

Yeah I never understood that statement. We been cutting stone and stacking it solidly for a long time. Precision come from patience and slavery.

21

u/Dave-C 20h ago

There is a good chance they were not built with slaves. At least not the same type of slavery we commonly know from history. We know the workers went on strike and were paid. So it might have been indentured servitude.

2

u/Unusual-Voice2345 19h ago

I think the people teaching you history are being awfully generous to say they were workers that went on strike. They were slaves and some at different times were paid. These were built over massive spans of time so it's not one or the other.

19

u/Dave-C 19h ago

No, but they literally were workers who got paid and went on strike. The main strike that we know of happened under Ramses the 3rd's rule. It was over not receiving wages and they requested some sort of "cosmetic" which some archaeologist believe would have been a sunscreen. Here is the wiki article about it.

Archaeologists don't believe they were slaves any longer after uncovering where they lived. They ate really well, had proper burials and other things slaves at the time wouldn't have received.

1

u/BobbiePinns 9h ago

Probably wage slaves, like us in labour based roles. Construction, landacaping, logistics, labourers, manufacturing,  etc.

11

u/TheLastRole 21h ago

So there are people out there who think we can build the LHC but not the pyramids?

5

u/kinga_forrester 18h ago

Yeah but that’s not even the real shit, LHC is an inter-dimensional gateway and the Egyptians built Washington DC.

r/alternativehistory

It’s mostly just a coping mechanism to feel less small and afraid in a huge and chaotic world.

3

u/RinellaWasHere 16h ago

I'm always baffled by that argument. We absolutely could build pyramids today, significantly faster than the ones at Giza. We just don't because pyramids have no particular significance to our culture beyond "this is a reference to the Old Kingdom of Egypt" and "behold, this is where the Bass Pros shop".

7

u/SoftwareSource 21h ago

People who say shit like "we couldn't build the pyramids today" never saw the statue of unity in India.

3

u/Shiney_Metal_Ass 19h ago

Needs more jump cuts

4

u/EmotionalHiroshima 20h ago

We built a giant sphere of televisions in Vegas… pretty sure we could build a pyramid if there was a half decent business plan behind it. We’ve basically perfected rectangles as a society.

4

u/millerjpm3 20h ago

These people are morons who think we can't stack blocks with today's tech

2

u/Confident-Balance-45 17h ago

Nope. We cannot "stack" , and we definitely can't lift 2.2 million pounds in one lift.

1100 ton Obelisk

0

u/RedBullWings17 17h ago

The strongest cranes in the world can lift 20 million pounds.

0

u/Confident-Balance-45 17h ago

How far out from the center mass of the machine?

2

u/RedBullWings17 17h ago

The strongest cranes in the world are gantry cranes so the load is within the cranes. But there also cantilever cranes that can lift over 6 million lbs 100+ feet from their base.

-1

u/Confident-Balance-45 17h ago

The great Pyramid is 147 meters tall.

2

u/RedBullWings17 16h ago

So?

0

u/Confident-Balance-45 16h ago

What gets you the extra 300 feet?

3

u/RedBullWings17 16h ago

First of all i just want to make a correction to some of my earlier numbers. I was accidentally converting from tons to kilograms instead of tons to pounds. So the largest gantry crane can lift 45 million lbs not 20 million. The largest cantilever crane can lift 14 million lbs not 6 million.

Second of all I interpreted your earlier question was about how far laterally from the the COG, not height above the ground. As I said it can lift 14 million lbs about a 100ft laterally from its base. It can also lift a bit less than that 500ft laterally from its base.

The crane Ive been talking about can lift loads as high as 750ft. Though at that height they can "only" lift about 6.5 million pounds.

The largest blocks within the pyramid are about 150,000 pounds (not the 2 million lbs that often gets thrown around by you wackjobs). Thats about the same weight as an Abrams tank and we stick those in airplanes and fly them around. They are only a relatively small number of these blocks mostly around the base and in the "core" the vast majority of blocks in the pyramid are much smaller weighing only about 3-7000 lbs.

1

u/Confident-Balance-45 15h ago

I'll give you that we can lift enough to place the ground level blocks.

How about the logistics in getting them there?

On a side note ...

Have you seen the latest finding on what is under these Pyramids? Incredible.

YouTube link to a short

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u/[deleted] 16h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Confident-Balance-45 16h ago

🤣 I'm not moving the goal post.

147 meters to the top of the pyramid. I didn't decide how tall it was.

Are you ok?

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2

u/42ElectricSundaes 19h ago

Well we definitely wouldn’t build it now because it never make a profit

2

u/Crab_Jealous 18h ago

Although it to be fair, some Arab fellas did build the incredible Bhurj Khalifa and not a connection to the sewerage system.

2

u/GaryGracias 17h ago

Do people seriously think we couldn’t recreate the pyramids??

1

u/Elderwastaken 20h ago

There’s always a bigger crane.

1

u/trailerhobbit 15h ago

So sick of this shit song

1

u/kdsaslep 15h ago

Now that's BIG!!! The biggest of BIG!!!

1

u/puyi5 14h ago

Don’t show this to the Tartaria conspiracy theorists

1

u/yingele 12h ago

Who are you quoting?

1

u/ilkikuinthadik 11h ago

We'll probably live to see a rich person make even bigger pyramids than the current ones for ego and to prove a point

1

u/dohru 8h ago

If we were to build the pyramid of Giza to how it was when newly finished, how much time/manpower/ energy would it take and how much would it cost? Is there still enough stone to quarry?

1

u/Leverkaas2516 7h ago

Today's video editing tools should have allowed construction of a clip that's watchable. This one isn't.

1

u/Substantial_Diver_34 5h ago

Going to need a low draft barge to float those rocks up the Nile. Transporting the material has always baffled me.

1

u/Dlirean 5h ago

Themini-drones thst are being used as flood lights during disasters woud have mind fucked the ancient egyptians more than the pyramids

1

u/Round_Fault_3067 1h ago

Well I see no pyramid😤😤

1

u/pitselehh 19h ago

The pyramids taught humanity what can be achieved if they work as one. Disregard the slavery…

0

u/Poopafly 18h ago

People who believe in ancient mysteries are usually not the brightest

0

u/Beneficial_Guest_810 19h ago

We could never think to mound stuff up in the most stable and naturally observed shape known to man.

They were clearly geniuses that understood material science and were given knowledge by aliens... /s