Reply To: Focus fusion and transportation

[Rematog]

Case in point about the persistence of standards…

Look at your keyboard. QWERTY. It was created in the second half of the 19th century to SLOW DOWN typing…. to the speed that the manual typewriters of the era could handle……hmmmm.

Going that one further. Why are the space shuttle solid fuel boosters the diameter they are….to be able to fit on a standard gauge rail road car….and, I quote wikipedia here, though I read this factoid before “Al Gore invented the Internet”.

Early origins of the standard gauge
Standard gauge appears to have been derived from the rutways created by chariots used by Imperial Rome, which everyone else had to follow to preserve their wagon wheels, and because Julius Caesar set this width under Roman law[citation needed] so that vehicles could traverse Roman villages and towns without getting caught in stone ruts of differing widths. Excavations at the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum revealed ruts averaging 1,448 mm (4 ft 9 in) centre to centre.

AND, bye the way, the chariot wheels were that far apart so…..a horse would fit between them….so…. The space shuttle solid booster diameter was determined by the width of a horse’s ass.

I Love that one.

Rematog