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The process of placing and curing concrete in hot weather is usually called moisture curing. There are two types. One for hot-arid and one for hot-humid environments. Hot-arid environments are the ones you usually need to worry about. Water is poured onto the surface as needed to keep just enough water to reflect for the …

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Those are sheet pilings. They are holding the lateral weight of the hillside up against them. They are one solution to preventing the hillside from sliding or collapsing into the newly built area.

There are two ways to look at this: A surface that needs to hold something like a 90,000lb vehicle rolling along. Or. A 90,000lb concentrated load coming down such as a column. For the first scenario, you need something like 8″-12″ thick reinforced concrete. Conditions below the slab generally define the difference. For the second …

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Obsidian is glass and therefore is cut exactly like glass. While there are lots of methods of stress and thermal breaking of thin-walled glass, I get the feeling that everyone is imagining a block or slab of obsidian. You’re not going to like the answer then. For large pieces you have two general choices: grind …

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Most of the time a variable load is a variable distributed load, VDL as opposed to a uniform distributed load, UDL. The variable changes from one rate to another which is either greater or less than the first. This represented as a wedge. Cases were this comes in is where loads are applied at an …

Continue reading “Does “variable load” mean that a structure can take that load at any given area each at a time or all at the same time?”

Fixed end – can’t move in any direction, can’t rotate. Hinge end – can’t move in any direction, can rotate around the hinge. There are differences in the math, but it depends greatly on your load case (or you can go straight for the Euler-Bernoulli equations if you’re a purist.)

Yes, but you need to be near the extremes before you start noticing a difference from the outside world. Your statement of 50 times bigger is too imprecise for this question. At 50 times the mass. you would scientific equipment to tell the difference, but you likely would never know. At 50 times the diameter, …

Continue reading “Could the size of something determine its experience of time? For instance, if our planet was 50 times bigger, would time elapse differently given the gravitational difference?”

Chairs usually aren’t used for reinforcement. They are placed to provide your placement distance in horizontal concrete, like slabs. There isn’t a specific distance, but usually a separation sufficient to prevent large sags. In the US since 18″ on center is so common, a spacing of 3′ (every other crossing) is common. Any spacing can …

Continue reading “How is the spacing of chairs reinforcement done in a slab?”

Bricks are made either with clay or concrete (depending on the type). They are either molded in forms or cut with wires like a cheese cutter. Lastly, they are either air dried or fired like clay pots.

It would be probably the best-known example of Byzantine architecture. Basically, Eastern Romans after they split from the Empire, then later adopted by middle eastern culture like the Ottomans and Muslims.