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Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

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Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#121

Post by fumar »

chmod775 wrote: post #94
WalterBright wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you likely would not be able to use the bulk of it Evolution rarely produces something useless, especially something that consumes a lot of precious energy like the brain. More likely these people were exquisitely knowledgeable about their environment. Either that, or their brains were the same size as ours, but far less efficient.

The human brain has actually been shrinking since about 40k years ago. There is some correlation between brain size and intelligence, but admittedly it isn't too strong.

How much of a change? Citation?

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#123

Post by dredmorbius »

dotancohen wrote: post #17

Seriously, why is the submission to a lower-quality, sped-up Twitter gif?

Possibly because the original was hard to identify, even for a sufficiently motivated submitter.

Like others, I saw the shorter animation, via Mastodon.

I assumed there was a source video but couldn't find one after an hour or so searching "medieval bridge building", "medieval bridge construction", etc., particularly as the keywords are dominated by gameplay animations.

There are several somewhat related videos on castle construction, employing some of the methods employed on Karlův most, e.g.:

How were castles built / constructed in the medieval period? https://youtube.com/watch?v=pu3O70GeQFY (~15 min)

Building A Medieval Castle Using Authentic Tools | Secrets Of The Castle | Timeline https://youtube.com/watch?v=ydoRAbpWfCU (~1h)

The first relies heavily on contemporary experience from Guédelon Castle, "an experimental archaeology project aimed at recreating a 13th-century castle and its environment using period technique, dress, and material."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guédelon_Castle

There are numerous videos of contemporary methods, e.g., Grady Engineering's dewatering explainer, showing the modern adaptaions of coffer dam / cassion construction illustrated in the submitted piece (https://youtube.com/watch?v=URC125wpMS4), various pre-cast span methods (https://youtube.com/watch?v=QDotEB6Uh9s https://youtube.com/watch?v=S3Kf9e6JgF4). China especially has developed rapid (https://youtube.com/watch?v=zvuufBqp0_4) and extreme (https://youtube.com/watch?v=2jj7gH3569M) span construction to an art form.

But rigorous videos detailing ancient construction, not so much.

Emailing mods can result in source links being substituted.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#124

Post by tantalor »

DavidHm wrote: post #12
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #10

I used to be tempted to think that our modern generations are extra smart because of the cool gadgets we have. Seeing stuff like this, and reading ancient political / philosophical writings, gives me a much-needed reality check.

It's a pretty typical mistake. We are just as smart as our predecessors. We just have a much higher population, a higher % of them are well educated, and we have an enormous body of historical knowledge (as well as easy ways for anyone to access it). "On the shoulder of giants" etc.

See "Flynn effect"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#126

Post by watwut »

dotancohen wrote: post #17

Seriously, why is the submission to a lower-quality, sped-up Twitter gif?

I liked the lower-quality, sped-up Twitter gif. It was few seconds that made me interested. I would not watch two minutes long original one. I did skipped through original one after seeing short one.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#127

Post by watwut »

dmurray wrote: post #98
TeMPOraL wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As _Microft says, the gif is making rounds on the Internet (I've seen it last night on Mastodon). And to be honest, I'm not surprised that it beats the video - it communicates the exact same information, and the same sense of awe as the original video, but in a much more time-efficient manner. Watching the original now, I can't shake the feeling of how boringly slow it is.

If you think the 3-minute video was slow, the actual original took 45 years.

Yeah, but I would not be sitting there watching it 45 years either.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#129

Post by JoeAltmaier »

prennert wrote: post #79
rimliu wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge

Oh wow. > In 1496 the third arch (counting from the Old Town side) broke down after one of the pillars lowered, being undermined by the water (repairs were finished in 1503). So that suggests there were no, or too little, defences against washout of the foundations originally.

Or, no divers inspecting the pillars and foundations against erosion. It was easy to get complacent in the old days, after the Engineer died, and just assume the old monuments were eternal.

Re: Animation of how bridges were built in Central Europe in the Middle Ages [video]

#130

Post by dylan604 »

Kuinox wrote: post #125
dylan604 wrote: post #122

Were the cranes human powered? It looks like giant hamster wheels that several humans would be needed to operate?

Yes, they use these to build Guédelon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%A9delon_Castle

Wow. That's a cool project to show how the alien's were not necessarily needed. I've seen attempts at this for the construction of pyramids, but those only really show how moving large stones with human motors were possible.

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