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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the Roman-concrete-lasts-2000-years...-why-not-our-roads? dept.

The story of concrete is so ancient that we don't even know when and where it begins. It is a story of discovery, experimentation, and mystery. Emperors and kings became legends for erecting great concrete structures, some of which are still a mystery to engineers today. Many of history's most skilled architects found inspiration in slabs of the gray building material. Common bricklayers advanced the technology, and a con man played a crucial role in the development of concrete recipes.

Today, the world is literally filled with concrete, from roads and sidewalks to bridges and dams. The word itself has become a synonym for something that is real and tangible. Press your handprints into the sidewalk and sign your name to history. This is the story of concrete.

[...] Let's get this out of the way right here: cement and concrete are not the same thing. Cement, a mixture of powdered limestone and clay, is an ingredient in concrete along with water, sand, and gravel.

So ubiquitous and fundamental, that nobody thinks about it. Its inventor is unknown, but that person changed history.

Related: Volcanic Rocks Resembling Roman Concrete Explain Record Uplift in Italian Caldera
Roman Concrete Explained


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Tuesday October 17 2017, @12:15PM (13 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @12:15PM (#583418)

    FTFA

    So ubiquitous and fundamental, that nobody thinks about it

    As a practising engineer, and an advanced DiY-er at home, I think about concrete, do calculations about concrete, make concrete, mould concrete, drill concrete, chisel concrete, break concrete, and have even tested large cubes of it to destruction in laboratories.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by WizardFusion on Tuesday October 17 2017, @12:22PM (3 children)

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 17 2017, @12:22PM (#583422) Journal

    Nerd

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:08PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:08PM (#583439)
    How many civil engineers like you are there per capita? There were only around 262,000 civil engineers in the US in 2010, out of a population of 308 million, so only around 0.08% of the entire population of the USA seriously thinks about concrete the way you do. When around 99.9% of the population doesn't really think about concrete, it's not such a bad approximation to say "nobody thinks about it".
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:08PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @09:08PM (#583662)

      Yes, it is. How hard would it be to add the word "almost" in front of "nobody thinks about it"? Not very. Be more precise.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @08:42AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 18 2017, @08:42AM (#583849)

        Nobody gives a shit.

    • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Tuesday October 17 2017, @11:50PM

      by Osamabobama (5842) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @11:50PM (#583731)

      When around 99.9% of the population doesn't really think about $NOUN, it's not such a bad approximation to say "nobody thinks about it".

      Alas, nobody thinks about anything anymore...

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      Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday October 18 2017, @08:28AM

      by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday October 18 2017, @08:28AM (#583846)

      How many civil engineers like you are there per capita? There were only around 262,000 civil engineers in the US in 2010

      Sounds like those are the white collar guys; you forgot the manual site workers with concrete. In the UK, building seems to be the only industry that is thriving, there are so many immigrants to accomodate. Building and advertising.

    • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday October 18 2017, @10:07AM

      by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Wednesday October 18 2017, @10:07AM (#583868) Journal

      When around 99.9% of the population doesn't really think about concrete, it's not such a bad approximation to say "nobody thinks about it".

      Population of the Universe: None. Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is zero, therefore the average population of the Universe is zero, and so the total population must be zero.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:31PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:31PM (#583452) Journal

    By that token it's equally valid to say large numbers of people think about star formation or chip design?

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:41PM (#583455)

    so you should know: how much more expensive is it to make concrete that resists the freeze-thaw cycle (directly exposed to the elements) than to make regular concrete and dress it up properly (i.e. insulation + paint etc). I am typing this from a brand new building with full walls of plain concrete exposed to the outside, and I want to know how much I can blame this on corruption (seeing the walls like this feels deeply wrong somehow).

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday October 17 2017, @04:13PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @04:13PM (#583517) Homepage Journal

    I'm not a Civil Engineer, but I agree. I've researched concrete for diy foundations, refractory cement, and countertops. I have not used it myself but I am curious how a house using autoclaved aerated concrete [wikipedia.org] fairs compared to the standard wood frame construction here in the USA.