Re: The wonders of science.

Glenn Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Sun, 12 Apr 1998 08:59:45 -0500

Bill, there are several issues of a factual nature which need correction here.

At 10:10 PM 4/11/98 -0600, bpayne@voyageronline.net wrote of the Inca's:

>You completely ignored my question about moving the 20,000 ton stone,
>Ed. Why is it that when you are presented with evidence supporting
>Kent's statement, you ignore the evidence and broaden your attack?
>Here's the paragraph again; this time please speak to the issue
>described below. How did those dim-witted cave men cut 100-ton
>irregular blocks around their entire cicumference to < 1/64-inch
>tolerance, and how did they move a 20,000 ton stone?

First, the Inca's were a highly intelligent modern people with a highly
complex civilization. They are most certainly NOT dim-witted cave men.

>
>> > "In the ancient city of Sacsahuaman, near the city of Cuzco, Peru, there
>> > is a magnificent wall built by the Incas, deliberately using irregularly
>> > shaped blocks of stone. Some of the blocks weigh as much as 100 tonnes
>> > and are so accurately fitted together that still today it is not
>> > possible to insert a piece of paper in the joints between the blocks.
>> > Even more incredible, however, is a larger stone block in the area. The
>> > size of a five-storey house and weighing an estimated 20,000 tonnes, the
>> > builders of Sacsahuaman could, and somehow did, move this block! The
>> > feat of moving such a staggering weight has never been attempted, let
>> > alone duplicated, with modern machinery. Even the largest crane in the
>> > world today is capable of lifting only about 3,000 tonnes." (Rene
>> > Noorbergin, _Secrets of the Lost Races: New Discoveries of Advanced
>> > Technology in Ancient Civilizations_, Norcom Pub. Co., TN, 1977, cited
>> > in Donald Chittick, _The Puzzle of Ancient Man_, Creation Compass,
>> > 1997. Quoted here from "Creation ex nihilo", Vol. 20 no. 2, March-May,
>> > 1998, p 13)

Chittick didn't bother looking at what we are doing in the oil industry He
erroneously claims "The feat of moving such a staggering weight has never
been attempted, let alone duplicated, with modern machinery."

This is utter hogwash as can easily be ascertained merely by looking in the
Guinness Book of World Records. Modern technology has exceeded what
Chittick says the Incas did.

"The heaviest lifting operation in engineering history was the raising of
the entire mile-long-offshore Ekofisk complex in the North Sea, Great
Britain, after subsidence of the sea bed. The complex consists of eight
platforms weighing 44,090 tons. On August 17-18, 1987, it was raised 21 ft
4 in. by 122 hydraulic jacks and a computerized hydraulic system." Guinness
Book of World Records, 1998, p. 67

Also Chittick makes the mistake of equating the highest rated crane with the
limit to what can be lifted. 2 3000 ton cranes can lift 6000 tons. and 5
can lift 15,000 tons.

Also Chittick does not give enough information to know whether or not the
20,000 ton rock could be moved. To move a large object along a horizontal
surface is easier than to lift it against the force of gravity.

glenn

Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man

and

Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm