Does the statement, 'We've always done it like that' ring any bells?



The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5
inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Because, that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates
built the US Railroads.



Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the
pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.



Why did 'they' use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools
that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.



Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would
break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because
that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England )
for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match
for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for
Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived
from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And
bureaucracies live forever.





So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass
came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army
chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war
horses.






Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big
booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are
solid rocket boosters,
or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah . The
engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit
fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the
launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the
mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.
The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad
track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's
most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years
ago by the width of a horse's ass.


- And -
you thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!

lol how cute

the thing is I have not taken the time to look up the measurements and such, but ti would not surprise me to finid out that this is all true.

There are so many things we do now simpmly because thats how it has always been done........

Yep, we are creatures of habit.

Loved it!

That just goes to show you how "advanced" we are!

somethign a lot of people dont realize also, is that rome and babylon both had a lto of the same technological advances we have today. So much technology and knowledge was lost when both countries fell/collapsed that it took so many years to get it all back.

And whats even scarier is look real close at babylon and rome from the political stance and compare it with the us. We are at the same levels of corruption and technological advance that they were when they fell.

Makes you kinda wonder doesnt it?

Very ,very interesting.

<------ runs around covering his head......






THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALING!!!!!!!! ARMEGEDDON HAS ARRIVED WE WILL ALL BURN IN HELL!!! THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!

Daniel, I friend at work just came back from vaction in Mexico. He visited some Mayan ruins & then went to a "mall" with crumbling walls, bathrooms that were unspeakalbly filthy. He said the "ruins" were in better shape than much of the closest community.

<------ runs around covering his head......






THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALING!!!!!!!! ARMEGEDDON HAS ARRIVED WE WILL ALL BURN IN HELL!!! THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!

LOL Wrong chick. That was Chicken Little!