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Quizzical Pursuit
—The Architecture Puzzler
Created by Dave Guadagni
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Solution to Last Week's Puzzler
Architecture Puzzler #42
Question
The slopes of Egyptian pyramids mimic the slopes of mountains in that the main force acting on both is the "dead load" of their own weight. What is the angle of the typical sloping face of the pyramids? Care to guess how much the pyramid at Gizeh weighs?
Answer
The typical face slope is 50 degrees. The pyramid at Gizeh is estimated to weigh 6.5 million tons (5.8 million metric tons).
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Dave Guadagni, AIA, is an architect with Robertson/Sherwood/Architects
Quizzical Pursuit is Copyright 2001, Dave Guadagni.
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Great Pyramid of Khufu at El Giza, Egypt.
Great Buildings Photo © Howard Davis
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