dharsourabh
Sourabh Dhar
Hey guys.. This is a real 'Googly' as one would say.
So you should read this carefully and understand the depth involved
in the subject of science and tech.
How They Designed the Space Shuttle
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,
8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English
expatriates built the US Railroads.
Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built
the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and
tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! So, why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel
spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels
would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's
the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So, who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England)
for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had
to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots
were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter
of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches
derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's
ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial
Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back
ends of two war horses.
Now the twist to the story...
There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges
and horses' behinds.
When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are
two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank.
These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by
Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might
have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped
by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from
the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs
had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the
railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses'
behinds.So, a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by
the width of a HORSE'S ASS.
So you should read this carefully and understand the depth involved
in the subject of science and tech.
How They Designed the Space Shuttle
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet,
8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because that's the way they built them in England, and English
expatriates built the US Railroads.
Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built
the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and
tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! So, why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel
spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels
would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's
the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So, who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England)
for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had
to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots
were made for (or by) Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter
of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches
derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot.
Specifications and bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's
ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial
Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back
ends of two war horses.
Now the twist to the story...
There's an interesting extension to the story about railroad gauges
and horses' behinds.
When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are
two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank.
These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by
Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might
have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped
by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from
the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs
had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the
railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses'
behinds.So, a major design feature of what is arguably the world's most
advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by
the width of a HORSE'S ASS.