Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017)
by AnimalMuppet on Monday July 27, 2020 @06:42PM
(#23970282)
Sure. But they did those things by experience and rules of thumb. They didn't do a real stress analysis on those aqueducts, for instance.
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Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017)
by mdiesel on Monday July 27, 2020 @06:49PM
(#23970342)
For those interested in reading further, the ideal (unloaded) shape of an arch isn't a semicircle, but a catenary.
It sounds so simple: so hangs the chain, stands the arch. Took until Hooke in the 17th century before that was written down, though there are earlier (15th century) examples in architecture.
The Romans were still working on the Greek ideology that the circle was the perfect shape. Not to belittle what they did, but the key advances were really in concrete and having an authoritarian empire giving unprecedented resources to public works.
Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017)
by ahazred8ta on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @11:13AM
(#23976625)
"Ut pendet continuum flexile, sic stabit contiguum rigidum inversum -- As hangs a flexible cable, so inverted stand the touching pieces of an arch." (although they figured out at some point that this curve was close to being a parabola)
Re:How did anyone do math in Roman numerals? (2017)
by goatinaboat on Tuesday July 28, 2020 @02:28AM
(#23972898)
They didn't do a real stress analysis on those aqueducts, for instance.
The Romans tested bridges by having the engineers stand under while a legion marched over.