Ancient Egyptian level - GIF

[Altair]

Ancient Egyptian level. 1000 year age obviously wrong.




Previously:

Ancient Egyptian lock mechanism - GIF
Ancient Egyptian tools - photo
4,000 year old Egyptian model tools - images
3-plane laser level - GIF
Hex level - photo

[mklotz]

The use of the idea of a square with equal length sides that form an isoceles triangle dates back to the era of pyramid building, approximately 4000 years ago.

On a more modern note, some speed squares have a pivot point indentation (at the 90 deg corner) and an etched angle scale...

https://www.amazon.com/Swanson-Tool-.../dp/B00002255O

and could, with the addition of a plumb line, be used as an Egyptian level.

[mwmkravchenko]

All the building civilizations came up with similar means and methods. And they are all 3 to 4 thousand years old. Not a thousand years old. Nice to see a young man take some interest in this at least.

[mklotz]

It's entertaining to think about how they might have constructed such a level so that it was accurate.

Forming the two legs to be the same length is easy. Two sticks, simultaneously drilled at one end, held together with a 'bolt' through that hole. Grind the end of this stack to shape.

Once the crossbar is made, how to find the center where level mark is placed? Put level on any surface. Make mark under string. Reverse level and make another mark. (Process similar to the way we check levels today.) Now find point halfway between two marks using compass; simple geometry exercise.

Angles other than 90 degrees were important to them. (Slope angles on structures are very important as the bent pyramid demonstrates.) They used the run/rise (tangent) method to generate angles. The 3-4-5 triangle to form a 90 deg angle was known to them before Pythagoras.

Using rise/run they could have built a ramp at a desired angle and used this ramp to calibrate to that angle all the levels used by the workers on the pyramid.

Fun stuff to think about while you're sitting in the dentist's waiting room :-)

[Gadgeteer]

To place the bubble on the end of a string was pure genius.

[mklotz]

The ingenuity of these ancient construction engineers was amazing.

To build the pyramids they had to first flatten and level the bed rock on which they were building. They carved a grid of slots into the rock, then flooded the grid. Workers then chiseled each square of rock between the slots until it was level with the water surface.

Given their use of water as a leveling agent, I wouldn't be surprised if we found evidence of them using animal intestines as the form of water level we employ today using clear plastic tubing.

Sadly, they were so preoccupied with religion and an imagined after-life that most of their tomb painitings and surviving papyri mention nothing about how they accomplished their construction megaworks.