[StBernard] NOLA article

[Westley Annis]

Michelle,

For not being an engineer you have good engineering "sense."  The "angle" to
which you refer is commonly referred to as the "45 degree principle."  This
is the degree of angle where sand well naturally settle and hold (or not
collapse).  Anything less (or straighter) than that will not.  If you watch
any historical documentaries on the Ancient Egyptians and their construction
of the pyramids you will see it was they who learned that lesson first - the
hard way - when the first pyramids they constructed at less than (or sharper
than) a 45 degree angle collapsed.  That's why they have several "shu-shu"
pyramids in Egypt.  Most people look at them and think time or earthquakes
caused their erosion and collapse.  Actually, they collapsed within months
after their contruction some 3,000 years ago - all because they built at
less than a 45 degree angle.  History recognizes Imhotep, the great royal
architect to the pharoahs, as the person who established this principle of
engineering.  He also was the first person to design a "gable" which was
only discovered a few years ago in the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  It was
previously thought the Greeks developed the gable until someone sent a snake
camera up one of the ventilation shafts in the pyramid and discovered it.
The engineering was was shocked - and in awe.

Sorry about the history lesson....my point here is:  you are right - it is
amazing what ancient civilizations came to learn as "common sense" in
engineering, some of our elected leaders can't seem to recognize.

And how does that old saying go.... "those who ignore history..... "

John Scurich