What's the tallest pyramid we'd be able to build? Can we reach space?

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• bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Semi relevant xkcd What if we built a 1 billion story skyscraper?

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  • AnonomousWolf@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    This is a building a pyramid won’t sway in the wind etc.

    I wonder if we can reach space by combining a pyramid like steel base and then into space elevator

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  • jol@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    This was published 1 day ago? That a whole other level of relevant xkcd.

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• Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Are there any restrictions on material?

  If not, I have stack of dirty nitrogen in my backyard over 100km tall, technically resaching space.

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  • Poach@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I’m pretty sure anything physical referred to as a pyramid would have to keep its shape, and therefore must be a solid.

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    • Deestan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      That makes sense. Though at geological scales the distinction between solid and non-solid blurs a bit. Mountains are not solid to a slow enough observer.

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• pauldrye@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Depends on the compressive strength of the material. Sooner or later the weight of the pyramid above the base exceeds the base’s ability to support it. Considering that a mountain is basically a stone pyramid, Everest has to be in the neighbourhood of how tall you could go – call it 10-12 kilometers high. Other materials would do better.

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  • XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I’m not convinced Mt Everest represents the most weight normal earth can sustain but rather the most height gained by regular tectonic motion. However, I stead of asking how much weight can stony earth support before collapsing, it leads me to ask how much weight can the crust support before buckling? Perhaps this project has diminishing returns as more weight above causes the crust to bulge downward and compensate.

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  • Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Imagining an aerogel pyramid 30 miles high getting blown around the world

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  • Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    With the way the bricks are laid, wouldn’t it distribute the weight across the entire base?

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    • pauldrye@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Yes, but it doesn’t matter enough. The Square-cube law means that the mass being supported goes up faster than the area of the layer doing the supporting does. So each additional brick on the bottom still ends up carrying more weight as the pyramid gets taller.

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• baggins@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  How tall a pyramid would you have to build before the base is too wide to reach the ground due to the curvature of the earth?

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  • XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I don’t see why the base would have to be flat. It could have a spherical volume carved out the bottom to accommodate the goofy little planet below

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    • untorquer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      You wouldn’t even notice seams. Line the width of human hair if you’re using similar to Egyptian pyramid blocks

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    • baggins@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      What would you do as the side length of the base approaches the diameter of the Earth

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• A_A@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Space is defined as 100 km high.

  For the first 10 km or so, with current technology, it’s possible to imagine a very light structure in part composed of big impermeable fabric envelope filled with hydrogen that would have a net weight of about zero because of buoyancy in air.
  The difficult part is the next 90 kilometers high for which i believe we wouldn’t be able to build anything that could sustain its own weight.

  On the other hand, if cost and energy was not an issue, with current technology, we could build enormous number of big tanks into which we would pump all the atmosphere, so the height of space would come down to sea level.

  … of course we would then have also to put oceans and all bodies of water in tanks, otherwise they would boiled out into space.

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• IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  0cm

  Because anything we build, future generations will say “THE ALIENS DID IT”

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  • BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Only if africans built it

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    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Calling Egyptians “African” is very Euro-centric thinking that makes the African continent a monolith of culture, when it is hundreds or thousands of cultures.

      You might as well say the Mayan people were Mexicans.

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• Fleur_@hilariouschaos.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Well if you’re building it out of stones or other rock probably around 15km since that is around about the tallest we think mountains on earth can be.

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• bstix@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  This design project might interest you, but do notice that it is not currently possible.

  https://en…wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid

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  • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    That was an incredibly interesting read. Do you know of any other planned mega structures like that?

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    • bstix@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Oh there are many wild ideas… I don’t know of any other pyramid shaped ones though.

      For other shapes, I think The Line in Saudi Arabia is worth a mention, because it’s actually being built. Slave labour and other issues aside, it’s interesting that they attempt to follow through on such an insane plan.

      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia

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• YamahaRevstar@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Probably 5

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• Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyhook_(structure)

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