• prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    I had a classmate that would tell me over and over how precisely the pyramids aligned with a set of stars at the time they were built, how we needed lasers to measure the imprecision, how we couldn’t do the same thing today.

    Eventually I found out that the imprecision was… a little over a foot, roughly 35 centimeters. That’s the insane precision, the refined craftsmanship we can’t produce today, getting the walls of a place within a foot of where we meant to put them.

    Everyone that says this is either blindly repeating a thing they heard once, or has never seen a skyscraper, or a shopping mall, or the average parking lot outside a Walmart with that one area where all the rain water stays a few extra days, because it’s 6 inches lower than the rest. THAT PARKING LOT IS STILL MORE PRECISE THAN THE PYRAMIDS, BRIAN.

    • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      You’ve forgotten that the sun rotates around the Milky Way the same way the Earth rotates around the sun. So the stars aren’t in the same place as they were thousands of years ago. Was this 1 foot off the ancient discrepancy or is that today?

      • prime_number_314159@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        10 months ago

        It was off by a foot at the time they were built. They’re substantially more inconsistent with the stars now. I thought that was clear in my comment, sorry for the confusion.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      He assumes everything is built only a foot high? I’ve built a few homes in my life and multiple barns and garages…you square the building to usually less than a 1/4"…not over a foot. Like the damn thing would fall down being that off.

      • Shenanigore@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        No it’s something about spatial alignment to heavenly bodies being a foot off, not a foot off level.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          10 months ago

          Ah, I was under the impression he thought we couldn’t square up shit like they could back then lol. This makes a little more sense, but still dumb lol