The Thinker said:
Quazimofo said:
oh i know! talk about how the space shuttle engines were influenced in design by the asses of roman warhorses back in the old Roman empire era! i am not kidding, this is true, though by a little bit of a stretch.
if you want the longer version of the story, quote me. i think it would be interesting since a great many people wouldn't believe it, but when you spring the sources on them, you can go HA!
...I need to read the extended version.
sorry for the long delay, i do my homework on sundays. took a while.
well, it goes a little something like this. the people who designed the rockets for the space shuttle which were meant to get it into orbit, wished to make it a bit wider. however, the manufacturer had to ship it by rail through a mountain, so the width was decided by the width of the tunnel, which was slightly wider than the train tracks.
the train tracks were built about 5 feet 8 inches apart. an odd number right? well, thats because the original train tracks in the untied states were built by the same people who built them in england.
the people in england who built them that far apart did so because they also built the pre-train tram lines. this was done with the same tools which were used to create wagons on the old england road systems.
they built the wagons at such a width because thats how far apart the wheel ruts were in the old roads, which were built by the romans and well trodden by war chariots.
the war chariots were in turn built just wide enough to fit the asses of 2 war horses. so there you go, space shuttle engines' width decided by the size of a war horse's ass a couple millenia before
