32 ms·

Reminds me of the "the distance between the rails of a railway are due to the width of Roman horse drawn carts" story.

by alexpotato 2y ago

littlestymaar 2y ago
Isn't that one a hoax though?
- all2 2y ago
  There are a few standards for rail-line widths. I know the US is on one standard (I think the narrow width lines died out almost 100 years ago at this point). I know that Europe has two, or maybe more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-gauge_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-gauge_railway << This makes for fun reading if you're interested in that sort of thing. Relevant passage A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937[8] traces the origin of the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge even further back than the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire.[a][9] Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons.'"[10] The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft (1,524 mm) apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts.[10] Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages".[11]
  - cdot2 2y ago
    I dislike the incorrect usage of "prehistoric". The Roman-era is not prehistoric.
    - umeshunni 2y ago
      in theory, the carts could predate Roman history.
Neywiny 2y ago
My preferred one for EE folks is that reportedly the first Arduino boards (now 20 years old?) had a mistake in their eCAD where the second pair of headers was 0.05 instead of 0.1" apart. But it was too late by the time they caught it. And now, 20 years later, even high end microcontroller boards ship with that same gap to be compatible.
- progbits 2y ago
  Small correction, one pair is 0.2" apart (so skipping one 0.1" pitch space), but the other is 0.16".
sandworm101 2y ago
Lookup why torpedo's are almost universally 21" in diameter. The short version: because that was how big they were last time. There is no reason beyond 21" being usrd once upon a time and nobody wanting to break from it and have the old torpedos not work in the new boats.
- magicalhippo 2y ago
  H I Sutton, a naval defense analyst, made a nice video on this topic. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuS0yhwSPMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuS0yhwSPMc
persolb 2y ago
I've actually used this fact in a related way, for wayfinding. Old school Open-CV was able to see tracks well from an onboard monocular camera, but calibration and scale was annoying. Track width is accurate enough that I was able to use it to input a bunch of head-end video to map the tracks. It was mostly just a modified edge detect where the tracks approximately would be. Once finding the tracks, you could automatically calculate the camera's height, lateral location, and angle.

Reminds me of the "the distance between the rails of a railway are due to the width of Roman horse drawn carts" story.

littlestymaar 2y ago

Isn't that one a hoax though?

all2 2y ago
There are a few standards for rail-line widths. I know the US is on one standard (I think the narrow width lines died out almost 100 years ago at this point). I know that Europe has two, or maybe more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-gauge_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-gauge_railway << This makes for fun reading if you're interested in that sort of thing. Relevant passage A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937[8] traces the origin of the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge even further back than the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire.[a][9] Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons.'"[10] The historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft (1,524 mm) apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts.[10] Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages".[11]
- cdot2 2y ago
  I dislike the incorrect usage of "prehistoric". The Roman-era is not prehistoric.
  - umeshunni 2y ago
    in theory, the carts could predate Roman history.

Neywiny 2y ago

My preferred one for EE folks is that reportedly the first Arduino boards (now 20 years old?) had a mistake in their eCAD where the second pair of headers was 0.05 instead of 0.1" apart. But it was too late by the time they caught it. And now, 20 years later, even high end microcontroller boards ship with that same gap to be compatible.

progbits 2y ago
Small correction, one pair is 0.2" apart (so skipping one 0.1" pitch space), but the other is 0.16".

sandworm101 2y ago

Lookup why torpedo's are almost universally 21" in diameter. The short version: because that was how big they were last time. There is no reason beyond 21" being usrd once upon a time and nobody wanting to break from it and have the old torpedos not work in the new boats.

magicalhippo 2y ago
H I Sutton, a naval defense analyst, made a nice video on this topic. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuS0yhwSPMc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuS0yhwSPMc

persolb 2y ago

I've actually used this fact in a related way, for wayfinding. Old school Open-CV was able to see tracks well from an onboard monocular camera, but calibration and scale was annoying. Track width is accurate enough that I was able to use it to input a bunch of head-end video to map the tracks. It was mostly just a modified edge detect where the tracks approximately would be. Once finding the tracks, you could automatically calculate the camera's height, lateral location, and angle.