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Pyramids have been built by practically every culture, on
every continent where man resides.
And what are the contributions of the modern age? Luxor
in Vegas, and that absurdity in Paris. Surely we can do
better?
Dome A is the coldest place on Earth, sporting Martian
temperatures and
an eleveation of 4,000 meters above sea
level.
What better place, then, to erect a monument made of
snow & ice? A pyramid to far exceed Khufu's in size, a true
wonder of the world.
Might be interesting to introduce transparent ice section
for prismatic effects (thinking Dark Side Of the Moon
effects here).
Jack McDevitt's Ice Sculptures on Pluto
http://www.amazon.c...evitt/dp/0441002846
[theircompetitor, Dec 25 2012]
3D ice printing
http://www.caddedge...eate-ice-sculptures
[Kansan101, Dec 25 2012]
Prismatic Effects
http://www.thepalet...ide_of_the_moon.jpg
/obvious [Letsbuildafort, Dec 26 2012]
Great Pykrete Pyramid of Ellesmere
Great_20Pykrete_20P...id_20of_20Ellesmere
blatant elf-promotion [BunsenHoneydew, Dec 29 2012]
Australia's big things
https://en.wikipedi...alia%27s_big_things
Amidst a very, very odd species, Australians are some of the oddest ... [8th of 7, Feb 23 2020]
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A long overdue gift to world culture. [+] |
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Kansan01 -- hope you're enjoying it -- McDevitt is a
great "sense of wonder" writer in the best SF
tradition. |
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[Kans], neat idea, doable with an upscaled 3D printer rig
(basically the same CNC chassis used on big industrial
plasma cutters) combined with snowmaking equipment like
that found at big ski resorts. Harvesting and melting local
ice would probably be cheaper than pumping in seawater,
especially since you'd then need to desalinate it. |
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As for lowering the ocean level...well, it wouldn't. All of
the water pumps in the entire world operating 24/7 to
siphon up seawater and store it someplace inland would
take years to lower the average sea level by any significant
amount. Then there's the probability that lowering the sea
level wouldn't help matters; when you start messing
around with tidal mass and current patterns things could
go to hell very suddenly. Frozen
hell, to be specific. |
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// pumping water from the sea // |
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You're still going to have to desalinate it. |
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At 4000 metres, ice will slowly sublime even at low temperatures. |
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"The Russians are gonna think we're up to
something."
"We ARE up to something!"
[+] |
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Calling it the great pyramid of Ices wouldn't be asping too much would it? |
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One problem with ice/snow is that it evaporates (sublimes, actually). Put a snowball in your fridges, and watch it disapparate. |
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So your ice pyramid won't last anywhere near as long as Kufu. |
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If the dissolved solids in the water are significant, then this will
lead to imperfections in the lattice of the ice crystals that form,
greatly reducing the strength. |
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The lower layers of the pyramid will need to have the best
compressive strength you can engineer. |
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Pykrete, surely, will solve all problems. |
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Engineer for compressive strength? I'm not understanding something. |
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I mean, what exactly is the problem with the whole thing collapsing into a heap - when what you were trying to construct is a heap? |
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The ancient Egyptians knew the answers to all of the
questions you just posed, but I don't. |
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Like people used to think glass would behave as a very viscous liquid, ice actually does. If it has somewhere to go, you can watch it move - you can get YouTube vids of glaciers flowing. |
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Natural precipitation can feed a glacier fast enough to maintain a steady state. ["Can" and "does" are not necessarily the same, which political argument I shall capture here in its entirety: --> :( ): <-- there, that's done.] The interior of Antarctica, being very cold and not very steep, will exhibit a fairly low flow rate; as long as your input exceeds said outflow, you will be able to keep the heap growing. |
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[Alterother] - I might guess that even the best Egyptian pyramid architects likely would have been taken somewhat aback if faced with using ice as a building material. |
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An ice Sphinx would be nice. |
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Wackaloon rumours to the contrary notwithstanding, there are no pyramids in Australia. |
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{nips outside to small pile of left-over paving bricks} |
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{starts work on signage for "tallest and most ancient pyramid in
Australia - discounts for school parties"} |
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I still love the word eleveation.... |
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// discounts for school parties // |
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You'll have some stiff competition there, mate ... given the Oz propensity for making giant "things" out of fibreglass ... |
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//I still love the word eleveation....// |
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//Dome Argus// I don't get it. Nobody's explained where the
little pencils go, or where you click to buy, or where the
collection points are. |
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