- Where exactly to you propose they acquired 1.3 tonnes of mercury? Where did it go when they were done with it?
There is arceolic findings of liquid mercury 3000 yera ago.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/24/liquid-mercury-mexican-pyramid-teotihuacan
- A 200 tonne megalith might be 2m x 4m x 5m, for a submerged surface area of roughly 38m³. 100 litres of mercury would make a wetted surface area of roughly 4 millimetres all around.
1/5 of the volume of granit is in the mercury. Other stone much less.
That is Bottom: 4x5 = 20 m2 and Sides (1/5)x2x(4+4+5+5) = 7.2 In total: 20+7 = 27 m2
Lets say around 30 m2. Lets make that to a square surface in dm 100x30 = 3000 dm2 .
That is 100 x 30 x Thickness = 100 dm3 is the volume of 100 liters.
Thickness is 0.0333 dm as 3.3 mm thick layer of mercury.
- What tolerances (roughly) on the channel walls would be required to support a 200 tonne block in only 100 litres of mercury? 1 millimetre? 2 millimetres?
Lets say the clay walls have a tolerances around 1 mm.
Lets say we have 1000 liter mercury.
100 x 30 x Thickness = 1000 dm3 is the volume of 1000 liters.
Thickness is 0.333 dm as 3.3 cm thick layer of mercury.
Now they can have 1 cm tolerances.
- How much could they dig out at time, moving only enough to hold 100 litres of mercury? Say, 2 millimetres, front and back?
Lets say they been doing liquid mercury for some hundred years and have 2000 liter mercury.
Now they can move the block maybe 1 dm at a time.
- How would they dig a gap, 4 metres wide, a metre deep but only 2 millimetres long?
They first make surfaces flat. Then wrap the stone in fibers and extra thick with fiber on the side they move the stone.
Then a layer clay. Then pack it in with dirt and stone all around. Now the pour in the mercury in the fiber(so under the stone it need much less mercury), until it float.
Now they remove the fiber on one side and move it. Then scope up mercury. And so on....
- Just how strong must these canal walls be to sustain this pressire without deformity? Not clay. Rock.
They will cover it in dirt and stone, so the rock is like in a hole in the ground.
If it is smaller stones they just use water and put boats on its sides and make a water channel for the stone to be moved in.
- How long does it take 50 litres of mercury to creep 5 metres through a 4 millimetre gap from front to back?
If they used mercury for hundreds of years they probably had hundreds of liters of mercury gathered.
So I guess they had more gap under the stone for the mercury to flow through.
- What rate of progress do you estimate they made from the trip from the quarry to the build site?
Years probably ....
And finally: have you done
any of this analysis yourself? Why not?
Its just a mind play right now for fun to see where this can lead.....
MagI from Sweden
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