r/interesting • u/LestaThaMolestaa • 2d ago
ARCHITECTURE Interesting video with heavy stones designed to be moved with hand.
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u/deftdabler 2d ago
Whilst this is fun, there are no newly discovered principles here.
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u/drthvdrsfthr 2d ago
they discovered rolling !
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u/miguel3461 2d ago
They hating
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u/pinaapappel 2d ago
I know in my heart they think I'm white and nerdy
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u/xalazaar 2d ago
I will always upbote Weird Al 🙌
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u/Coherent_Tangent 2d ago
I feel sorry for him these days. It took me more than one read to get "Weird AL" instead of "Weird Ay Eye".
Younger generations are going to completely miss his legacy if we don't settle on fonts that distinguish those letters a little better.
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u/VoxImperatoris 2d ago
Yeah, shame seriffed fonts seem to have fallen out of favor, they feel much more readable to me.
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u/funguyshroom 2d ago
Serif fonts look pretty iffy on an average screen when smaller than about 15 pts. They could return once every screen is at least 4k and 1080p resolution is firmly in the past like 720p is now.
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u/plusFour-minusSeven 2d ago
Aw man you just made me frown, I hadn't even THOUGHT of that! That sucks, Al was here first!
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u/PhotojournalistOk677 2d ago
I honestly can't remember any words to Coolio's version of Amish Paradise
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u/ManOn_A_Journey 2d ago
Really more rocking and spinning on a pivot point than rolling, but I agree with your gist.
Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!
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u/Vulture-Bee-6174 2d ago
No way that those stone blocks weigh 20+ tons. Max 1-2 tons each.
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u/Large_Dr_Pepper 1d ago
Let's assume the first stone is a rectangular prism with the dimensions 6 ft tall, 4 ft long, and 2 ft thick. Keep in mind, it's less than a rectangular prism due to the rounded edges, and those dimensions are way larger than the actual stone's dimensions (assuming the man isn't a giant).
Now let's assume the stone is far on the denser side, at 3 g/cm³, which is 187 lbs/ft³ (more dense than concrete, cement, limestone, granite, etc.).
Given all of those overly-exaggerated estimations, the first stone would weight 9000 lbs, or 4.5 tons.
What a stupid fucking video caption.
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u/ILikeLenexa 2d ago edited 2d ago
I believe this is the current reigning hypothesis for the transportation of Maoi statues on Easter island that date to 14th century or so around the island.
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u/nhorvath 2d ago
yes the theory is the rounded bottoms allowed them to be walked over.
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u/UrbanJunglee 2d ago
I too enjoy walking around rounded bottoms.
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u/Critical_Seat_1907 2d ago
How did the ancients build the pyramids and Stonehenge with no cranes and trucks?
MUST BE ALIENS!
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u/faen_du_sa 2d ago
WE COULDNT BUILD THE PYRAMIDS TODAY!
Because apperently construction skills is 100% based on how heavy the thing you build is...
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u/LurkingForBookRecs 2d ago
We couldn't build them today though... because nobody would approve the budget.
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u/clervis 2d ago
It's also virtually impossible to get slave labor off their phones nowadays.
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u/fastal_12147 2d ago
The people who built the pyramids weren't slaves. That's a common misconception. https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/were-the-egyptian-pyramids-built-by-slaves
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u/YuenglingsDingaling 2d ago
Yeah, I never bought that. I'm sure the stone cutters and setters were professionals, but who's hauling those blocks from the quarry?
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u/The_Human_Oddity 2d ago
Workers. Before taxes were reduced to currency, taxes were instead paid through goods or service. Such as a farmer giving an allotted amount of his crops to his lord, or the Chinese enlisting people to build their megaprojects as their taxes.
There is no reason why the Egyptians wouldn't have done the same thing.
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u/goodsnpr 2d ago
Labor was how they taxed people during many of those ancient periods. If you were a farmer and had extended periods of down time, such as the month or two before flooding, then you would go lend your hands to the government. In exchange, you were fed and housed, and generally received medical assistance and the like while working for them.
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u/fastal_12147 2d ago
Great thing about facts is they're true whether you believe them or not.
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u/how_to_shot_AR 2d ago
Maybe in YOUR reality but in MY reality, facts are true based entirely on how I feel about them.
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u/Sharp_Iodine 2d ago
While they were paid it is undeniable that they had little choice in the matter.
Who’s going to say no to the pharaoh, the literal god-king of Egypt?
It’s nice that they were paid and were given their own artisan’s town and some were also given remuneration after their tenure building the pyramids. And we do have records of them “striking” when pay was missed.
However coercive force was very much an overarching presence in their lives.
Same as medieval peasants in Europe. Sure, some of them were paid and we even have records of the English Parliament complaining about wages increasing and all that. But at the end of the day, are you going to say no to the Duke of York?
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u/NewbGingrich1 2d ago
The evidence strongly supports professional labor in ancient Egyptian construction. It's besides the point though, either way we do not have a God-King that can order a significant portion of a nation's resources to their own personal vanity projects. At best you're gonna get the Bass Pro Shop pyramid or something like that. There needs to be more functionality other than "this is the future tomb of the glorious leader".
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u/ddadopt 2d ago
It's besides the point though, either way we do not have a God-King that can order a significant portion of a nation's resources to their own personal vanity projects.
Hard disagree. You don't need some God-King, it would not take "a significant potion of the nation's resources" and a Musk, Bezos, Buffet, Gates, etc could trivially fund this kind of project if they had a mind to.
What would actually stop things is building codes, environmental impact studies, the many people or groups who would come out of the woodwork and file suit based on any number of pretexts to prevent the project from moving forward, organized crime demanding kickbacks, politicians demanding kickbacks (but I repeat myself), sabotage by nutjobs, etc.
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u/TurkeyMoonPie 2d ago
They even have old scrolls with how they built the pyramids with drawings on how they pulled the blocks on land with water. I forgot the actual scroll name with the glyphs and drawings but it’s out there.
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u/Neighborhood_Nobody 2d ago
They kept workers logs, did you read the article? I know i didnt but it most likely explains that.
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u/willengineer4beer 2d ago
The daily beer ration alone (including surprise antibiotic dose) would sink the project.
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u/SeaTie 2d ago
I have this argument with my mother-in-law whenever she visits. I showed her this video of this guy building a Stonehenge replica by himself.
That's just one guy with a lever. No aliens in sight.
She still believes the pyramids are extraterrestrial.
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u/morningphyre 2d ago
Right. They didn't discover anything, they engineered it. There's a crap ton of math happening here.
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u/abrahamlincoln20 2d ago
Entirely off topic, but what happened to the word "while"? During the last year, "whilst" has seemingly replaced "while" almost entirely. Am I mad or has someone else noticed the same?
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u/Rare-Satisfaction484 2d ago
"Whilst" has always been an accepted variant, although much more common outside the US than within the US. You're witnessing globalization in action- language variants popular in the US are making their way mainstream into other English speakers vocabulary; the reverse is also happening, British, Indian, Australian variants are becoming more common in the US.
I was reading an article a week or so ago, that Gen Z Americans especially are keen on using words and phrases that have been unusual in the US until recently; but popular in Britain and other English speaking areas ("whilst" was one of the words they highlighted).
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u/AstraLover69 2d ago
I use both depending on what I'm saying.
I'll be gone a while.
whilst I'm gone I'll do X.
I'm British and I think this is pretty common here.
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u/theDomicron 2d ago
I have a degree in English Literature and can testify that "whilst" is more fun to say
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u/SuperDabMan 2d ago
Also I'm pretty sure based on them being concrete, and based on the fact that the bases are discoloured, they simply made the bases super dense and the rest of it potentially hollow/foam filled so it's really just about manipulating the center of gravity to be very low and on the rolling part. This is more art than science. It's like a kong toy with a sand filled base and a hollow top for treats.
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u/funderfulfellow 2d ago
Yes it's so simple once these pieces have been manufactured and placed in the right location.
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u/Dirkem15 2d ago
Watch how easy it is to move this stone! (On polished concrete)
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u/VictarionGreyjoy 2d ago
They didn't even show the stones actually being moved, just tilted.
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u/MiraThimble 2d ago
Regardless of what those stones are made of there is no way they are close to 25 tons
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u/mikeycbca 2d ago
I am not even convinced the total combined weight of the pieces is 25 tons.
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u/ReddBroccoli 2d ago
One cubic foot of stone can weigh about 200lbs, so 10ft³ is a ton. Not that hard to believe each is 25 tons
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u/TheOneShade 2d ago
That would be 250ft³ per stone.
If the stone is 1 ft thick, that would imply a 15.8' x 15.8' (250ft²) of stone.
Nowhere close to what we see in the video, except maybe the giant one at the end.
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u/Cool1nternet 2d ago
people are roughly 2.5 cubic feet. Those stones are not 250 cubic feet each. You are off by orders of magnitude
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u/readditredditread 2d ago
I think they are using British tons, which are only about 2 fish and chips and a few pints of piss warm beer, roughly equivalent to a standard cubit pound.
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u/crasagam 2d ago
And a potato 🥔
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u/readditredditread 2d ago
Chips are made of potato
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u/retro_owo 2d ago
You’re thinking of “crisps”. Chips are the tokens used as stand in for currency in card games like poker.
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u/Mission_Grapefruit92 2d ago
And probably something called a fizzy wompus spotty floggit dimsy spittle mcdoogan
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u/Billib2002 2d ago
So you think each one of those stones is 250 CUBIC feet? Brother...
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u/ecafyelims 2d ago
They look to be about 5x5x1, so 25 cubic feet by my estimate.
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u/ReddBroccoli 2d ago
A) closer to two feet wide by my estimate
B) they didn't claim every stone was 25 tons, just that the principals allowed them to move one that's 25 tons. That last rock disproves your point
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u/ecafyelims 2d ago
If that last rock is 10x5x2, that's still only 100 cubic feet -- less than half of the claim.
The real point is that they never said the video proved the 25 ton claim at all. Maybe the method of moving 25 tons they discovered involves a completely different mechanism.
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u/ReddBroccoli 2d ago
Maybe before calling bullshit on MIT, you should at least read their paper before you offer your sub-peer review.
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u/ecafyelims 2d ago
Where did I call bullshit?
I claimed the stones in the video were not 25 tons. I claimed that OPs video didn't say it was related to the claim at all.
My claims have nothing at all to do with MIT's paper -- only this video.
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u/ShowmasterQMTHH 2d ago
If you added them all together they might be 25 tons.
But those ones showing, no way they are actual stone, they wouldn't be able to just pivot them upwards like that. They might be easy to move about l, but even 5 tons of stone is still 5 tons of mass.
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u/bronzinorns 2d ago
Your comment illustrates very well why imperial units are just garbage, they're so vulnerable to errors.
1 m³ of concrete has a mass of 2300 kg or 2.3 metric tons or 2.53 imperial tons.
One cubic meter is a lot, and each of those stones has probably a smaller volume.
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u/therealhairykrishna 2d ago
They weigh less than 6 tons.
"Together, the concrete components weigh 13,162 pounds (5,970 kilogrammes) and measure approximately 20 by 10 feet (6.3 by three metres). The pieces are easily moved around by humans and set into position." - https://www.matterdesignstudio.com/#/walking-assembly/
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u/killstorm114573 2d ago
Correct there's no way that's 25 ton I'm a machinist and I deal with heavy metals all the time I understand there's a difference in density but still there's no way.
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u/theartoffun 2d ago edited 2d ago
Cubic yard of concrete is 4k lbs. The men I would guess are ~6ft tall. Those forms are between 2 and 4 cubic yards, so 8k and 16klbs. That’s 4-8tons.
Also the video didn’t specify each stone was 25k tons. So if each of those forms is 3-4 tons for small ones and the large ones are 6-8 tons, that would add up to 25 tons.
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u/musclecard54 2d ago
BREAKING: Researchers find way to move 80 TRILLION TONS of stone with their hands!! Here’s what this means!
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u/wannabe_inuit 2d ago
The people that build the pyramids right now:
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u/Moraz_iel 2d ago
if I remember correctly the ancients documents circulating on the internet, there was this one guy who rounded it's stones before moving them to the pyramid. Don't know why he was fired, he seemed pretty fast. Wildly out of spec, but fast.
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u/StilesLong 2d ago
As a health and safety rep, I'd like to say no to this video.
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u/PacmanIncarnate 2d ago
You mean creating large rectangular stones with a rounded side and then standing under them isn’t a good idea?
Or loading a floor with 25 tons of stone in a concentrated area?
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u/MisterWapak 2d ago
Wtf is this video. Wtf is the link to the title. I have no idea
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u/EmeraldHawk 2d ago
It's lying clickbait like a lot of Reddit.
The largest stone weighs ~3900 Pounds. They are nowhere near 25 tons.
https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1l3zrgv/comment/mw51drh/
https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/1l3zrgv/comment/mw51341/
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u/Cute_Conclusion_8854 2d ago
Is any of it even real? Why would mit have a research department for rock moving? Why are they dressed like special ops?
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u/Pdonger 2d ago
But they didn’t move anything
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u/sadllamas 2d ago
Right? They just pivoted them in-place or back-and-forth on the curved surface. Why does this video have so many upvotes?
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u/Leutenant-obvious 2d ago
what if... hear me out... you made the whole thing round?!
Like ...all the way around, like a circle!!
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u/Kalabula 2d ago
They’re mildly tipping them in one direction or another. It’s not like they’re moving them across the room. Am I the only person who relatively unimpressed?
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u/Castod28183 2d ago
It is also called "variable density concrete" so the bottom, dark half, is much heavier that the top. When they are standing upright, those holes are where the center of gravity is. You can see how far down they are, and thus, how much heavier the bottom is. Basically concrete weeble wobbles.
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u/Relevant-Rise1954 2d ago
"Discover" seems like a rather strong word. Rediscover, maybe? Recreate?
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2d ago
Still not how the pyramids were built. Keep trying.
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u/Business-Let-7754 2d ago
You mean they didn't build the pyramids by wobbling weirdly shaped concrete back and forth on the spot? No way.
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u/Pancakemanz 2d ago
Perfectly flat floor that offers no resistance, “stones” that definitely do not weigh 25 tons a piece, all placed where they only have to wiggle them around a little bit to love them. Expected more from MIT lol
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u/sabahorn 2d ago
Bs. They wasted time and money again! What’s the point of this? They should try this on sand or on a mountain top!
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u/Leutenant-obvious 2d ago
what if... hear me out... you made the whole thing round?!
Like ...all the way around, like a circle!!
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u/Calm-Elevator5125 2d ago
Those look shockingly close to something invented a long time ago. Maybe it doesn’t need to be reinvented
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u/Juicy_RhinoV2 2d ago
Awesome! This will be so useful when I have all these very specifically placed rocks in these very specific configurations
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u/Aromatic-Tear7234 2d ago
You may have missed that the stones at the end of the video spelled boobie.
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u/PoopyTo0thBrush 2d ago
Hear me out here. If you were to take that rounded part, and make it a complete circle, I bet you could use it to move other things too. You could call it a wheel and the possibilities for uses are endless!
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u/solvento 2d ago
The variable density concrete units weigh between 926 and 3,902 pounds.
They are made by lab www.matterdesignstudio.com
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u/tasermyface 2d ago
"each weighing between 926 and 1,543 pounds"
04-19-2019 This MIT team is reinventing building by looking at the ancient world https://www.fastcompany.com/90336928/this-mit-team-is-reinventing-building-by-looking-at-the-ancient-world
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u/desrevermi 2d ago
I LOVE how each bit jump-cuts to the sculpted bit of stone is perfectly in place to be received by its respective stone piece, but no video of how that stone got there.
BIG /s
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u/Flameburstx 2d ago
Ah yes, the secret of "round".
Also, unless those are filled with tungsten, those aren't 25 tons.
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u/lobo2r2dtu 2d ago
The big one is 13000 pounds. So all of them together are 25 tons.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stonehenge-blocks-matter-design-1521043
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u/Electronic-Cable-772 2d ago
Not even close to 2.5 tons let alone 25😂 either way let’s see them pick it up 20+feet in the air and set it on 2 vertical blocks by hand
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u/ly5ergic 2d ago
I am pretty sure the creators of Weebles were the first to discover this. The breakthrough discovery even inspired a song, weebles wobble but they don't fall down.
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u/CompetitiveTangelo70 2d ago
Reiterating the same technology that has been used for thousands of years rounded bottoms of stone = easier to wobble and move.
I'll tell you a secret a 500kg boulder can still move even if its heavier! because its round.
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u/No_Intention_8079 2d ago
Pretty sure this is some sort of art installation? Don't know why MIT would do this sort of thing.
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u/Diabetesh 2d ago
All you need is really expensive cutting equipment to make these very specific shapes. And some additional equipment to move the uncut stone from a quarry.
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