Thadd Wrote:
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> Well, to lets say that there are 2,300,000 stones
> and 50,000 people, who can each be taxed for
> roughly 1/4 of a years work, or 91.25 days per
> year.(the rest of the people and the rest of the
> 50,000 people's time is devoted to non-pyramid
> works)
>
> That means that each individual is responsible for
> 46 blocks in a lifetime.
>
> Then say that each individual of those 50,000
> workers has a productive lifespan of 20 years.
>
> That means in a given year each individual is
> required to give 2.3 blocks
>
> Over their 91.25 days of work they would have to
> produce the equivelent work of .025 blocks a day.
>
> Now take into account that we have already seen
> the figure of 100,000 people thrown around here
> and that after each of these people gave their 20
> years of labor, their would be another generation
> to continue the work.
>
> This is really a simple example, and certainly not
> everyone did .025 blocks worth of work a day, but
> they contributed work would have been distributed
> on the work force, so that some would move, some
> would carve, etc.
>
> Is it a lot of work to build a pyramid? Of
> course, but when you have many people, working
> many days over the course of many years, it breaks
> down.
>
>


Yes.

This is roughly equivalent each worker lifting 60lbs to 200'
per day. This is a doable amount of work even though it's
far more than most physical laborers do now days.

The devil is in the details though.

There would have been a tremendous amount of support work in
quarrying and setting the stone leaving the actual lifters to
do significantly more. Then there's the big problem with them
not being able to work alone according to traditional theories.
They had to team up with dozens of others to pull on stones.
Each time a stone stops extra exertion must be applied to over-
come the coeficient of static friction. A steady rate is imp-
ossible without ramps (and straight ones at that).

This is one of the things I like about the counterweight idea;
that the work can more easily be broken down into manageable
amounts. Not only are no ramps required but teams and most
dangers are eliminated. Bucket brigades could lift sand or water
at a good pace right up the side.



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Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.