The Romans did not use "War Chariots". Those were obsolete by the time
the Legions marched on British soil.
On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Nunez, Eduardo
wrote:
=%OThis needs no further explaining...
=%O
=%O> Subject: Year 2000 analogy?
=%O> Article written by a professor Tom O'Hare of the University of
=%O> Texas a
=%O> while ago:
=%O>
=%O> Why are railroad tracks 4 feet 8 1/2 inches apart?
=%O>
=%O> The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails is 4
=%O> feet,
=%O> 8.5 inches, That's an exceedingly odd number.
=%O>
=%O> Why did the English build them like that?
=%O> Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who
=%O> built
=%O> the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
=%O>
=%O> Why did 'they' use that gauge?
=%O> Because the people who built the tramways used that same jigs and
=%O>
=%O> tools that they used for building wagons, which use that wheel
=%O> spacing.
=%O>
=%O> Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing?
=%O> Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would
=%O> break on
=%O> some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing
=%O> of
=%O> the old wheel ruts.
=%O>
=%O> Who built these old rutted roads?
=%O> The first long distance road in Europe were built by Imperial
=%O> Rome for
=%O> the benefit of their legions.
=%O>
=%O> The roads have been used ever since, and the ruts?
=%O> The initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of
=%O> destroying their wagons, were first made by Roman war chariots,
=%O> since
=%O> the chariots were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
=%O>
=%O> Thus, we have the answer to the original questions. The United
=%O> States
=%O> standard railroad gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches derives for the
=%O> original
=%O> specification for an Imperial Rome army war chariot. Military
=%O> specs
=%O> and bureaucracies live forever.
=%O>
=%O> So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what
=%O> horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because
=%O> the
=%O> Imperial Rome chariots were made to be just wide enough to
=%O> accommodate
=%O> the back ends of two war horses.
=%O>
=%O> We need only look a few hundred years down the road to see
=%O> legions of
=%O> programmers asking each other why in the world does this date
=%O> have two
=%O> digit year?
=%O>
=%OAnd for the LBC content: My '75B does not have a Y2K problem, but the
=%Ocomputer that I sometimes use at home to access the LBC websites does!
=%O
=%OEd Nunez
=%O
"Never ascribe to Malice that which can be explained by Ignorance"
John J. Peloquin
Molecular Biology &
Biochemistry
3205 BioSciences II
UC IRVINE
Irvine, CA 92697-3900
jpeloqui@uci.edu
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