I received this post about train tracks from a homeschooling list today. Love it!
Railroad tracks.
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates designed the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular
Odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.
Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. In other words, bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process, and wonder, 'What horse's ass came up with this?' , you may be exactly right.
Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)
Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or
SRBs. The
SRBs are made by
Thiokol at their factory in Utah .
The engineers who designed the
SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the
SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the
SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature
Of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass. And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?
So, Horse's Asses control almost everything...
...Explains a whole lot of things, doesn't it?
***************
Our
homeschooly stuff is really flowing these days as we take advantage of being inside. I saw a really neat narration activity in a friends blog this week (
http://95acresofsky.wordpress.com/) that teaches observation. She called it "Say What You See" and had her 5 year old son study a painting for several minutes then narrate what he saw. This is to encourage seeing the big picture not just what you think you saw. I tried this with Sid using Starry Night by Van
Gogh. What a cool experience to see things through her eyes. Sid studied it for about 10 minutes then told me what she saw:
A cloud of smoke that looked like a black fire, a church far behind in the village with some bridges, houses and a moon with a big swirl of wind. It was black, yellow and white and it was summertime at night. The person painting the picture was camping.
Then I had Sid draw her version of Starry Night using pastels.
She titled her version Starry Day with a Rainbow. This is the sequel to Van
Gogh's painting because according to Sid the wind indicated a rain storm coming so of course there would be a rainbow the next day. :0) We will try this again next week but with a more detailed painting.
The end of the week held a very special treat for us. Eleven degrees above zero!!!!! REALLY, a new record for February 18th!!! Snow was melting, no
toques, mitts or down jackets. Sid and I ventured out in our vests and played outside for most of the afternoon. The mice were out too as the dogs swarmed the wood pile trying to unearth them.
Sadly we are back to winter. It was a nice break but a bit cruel as we now realize once again how cold it is. We were hit with terrible wind on Friday evening after the big thaw. Our power went out around 9:00 pm and stayed out for a couple of hours. We don't worry too much. Ken has us set up with a fantastic generator that is back fed into the house. If we need heat, water or a cup of coffee, just one pull of the starter and we are good to go. We took the opportunity to tune up our kerosene
lanterns and just hang out together!
As a kid I remember the
excitement of a power failure, candles, flash lights, sitting around chatting or playing cards. I still get this as an adult and it
occasionally makes me crave a simpler life.... but then I have to check my email ;-)
pic by Magda!
pic by Magda
pic by Magda
pic by Magda
