4 ms·
It is remarkable that with all of today's technology and advances, there are still areas to be found where we have yet to match the engineering prowess of thous
by james33 13y ago
It is remarkable that with all of today's technology and advances, there are still areas to be found where we have yet to match the engineering prowess of thousands of years old civilizations.
- sliverstorm 13y agoI would not call it "engineering prowess". I would call it "experimentation" or "luck". The Roman Empire lasted 450 years, so they had plenty of time for experimentation, and it was near plenty of volcanic ash, which provided ample opportunity to luck into a good formula. Obviously they came up with something good, and deserve credit. But to call that a triumph of Roman engineering over modern engineering? If I grew up in a land possessing an abundance of of nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur, would you proclaim how advanced my science was, if I came up with gunpowder?
- datalus 13y agoEnvironment plays a huge role in everything, constructing superior concrete is no exception. That doesn't preclude it from being useful at the end of the day...
- mtts 13y agoIn this case it's not engineering prowess, however, it's just dumb luck: they had plenty of volcanic ash to work with, we don't. Another example is Roman pottery. By sheer coincidence the clay they used was of exceptionally high quality (extremely fine particles, IIRC) so Roman pottery is extremely hard and durable, much harder and durable than we can make pottery today. Unfortunately, there was only one source of this clay (somewhere on the coast of Italy) and the Romans depleted it.