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The Rock Solid History of Concrete

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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: 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".
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  • (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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  • (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.