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Did Polywater® help build the Egyptian pyramids? How the ancients moved multi-ton stones to build pyramids without modern technology has long baffled scientists, but physicists now think they know the secret: lubrication. A University of Amsterdam team showed that adding the right amount of water to sand reduces friction enough to allow heavy objects to slide. Researchers reference an 1,800 BC Egyptian painting depicting a stone-laden sled with water being poured in front. Their experiments show how “capillary water bridges” form with the addition of water, aiding in sliding--but too much water actually increases friction. Technical details are written in an abstract published in Physical Review Letters: “... friction coefficient is directly related to the shear modulus ... the polydispersity of the sand is shown to also have a large effect on the friction coefficient.” It sounds like it could have been written for the Pull-Planner Software. Experiments show that dry sand builds up in front of a load-bearing sled, while too-wet sand increases friction. Just-wet-enough sand under a load-bearing sled halves the force needed to move it. The team concluded that Egyptian desert sand is particularly slippery when wet, and pyramid workers may have wetted the sands to ease the giant sledges. Some historians believe the water pouring to be ritual, rather than lubrication. The Polywater Laboratory contends that, considering the large number of stones moved and the amount of valuable water required in the desert, "the decision to lubricate was most likely performance based." In a test eerily similar to Polywater's unique "friction table," the team measured resistance on a PVC sledge dragged through different types of sand. It was weighted to exert downward force, and was pulled by a tensile tester that measured the force required to move it, allowing a coefficient of dynamic friction calculation. Sand piling up in front of the sledge was a major contributor to friction. But by adding water, the grains began to stick together, forming a stiff surface the sled could slide across. And just as cable pulling friction depends on the type of cable jacket and conduit material, the coefficient of dynamic friction is heavily dependent on the type of sand. The Egyptians were lucky in that regard; wetting their sand would have been a boon to ancient monument builders. So did Polywater help build the pyramids? No ... but had we been around then, they may have given us a call. We would've also replaced the whips with ESOP and profit sharing plans for even more productivity. |
