In another thread, a poster present this picture. Rather than derail that thread (not that it'd do much harm, but rules are rules), I thought I'd ask here: Why the devil did people make containers like that?!
I have a coffee mug at the office that's tapperd upward--the base is wider than the top. This configuration makes it remarkably difficult to spill the coffee when it's full and sitting on the desk. The wide base lowers the center of gravity, making tipping over unlikely. That seems the most rational choice for a container that will hold valuable liquid and which can't be closed very well. (Coffee is a VERY valuable liquid--I have to guard my french press when the coffee maker goes down....there have been attempted raids....)
If the container will be closed, you'd think space would be an important consideration. What I mean is, you'd think they'd want to pack as much liquid--in this case wine--as possible into as small an area as possible. The relatively pointy bottom of these containers means that a huge volume of space is wasted not holding liquid. Now, maybe you can get away with that at home, or in a warehouse or something--but I've seen these containers on ancient shipwrecks. Space is ALWAYS at a premium in a ship; any space not holding cargo is losing the captain money. And if it's relatively top-heavy, like these are, it's even worse. Ships move in weird ways, which can easily upset such vessles I would think. A cylindrical vessle would be much more efficient, even factoring in the wasted space due to the round shape (cone volume=1/3*b*h; cylinder volume=b*h).
Yet for some reason they seem to be popular. The Greeks used them. The Egyptions did. The Romans did, though that may be because they were copying the Greeks. I know other cultures have, but I can't think of the names off-hand. These aren't illiterates who are merely copying what their ancestors did--these are advanced civilizations (for their time) that knew engineering principles and had showed a fair bit of adaptability (the Egyptions adapted to new fighting techniques, and the Romans were as interested in copying good ideas as developing them). Simply put, they should have known better.
What makes this shape so attractive that people are willing to use it over and over again? I have to be missing something; what is it?
I have a coffee mug at the office that's tapperd upward--the base is wider than the top. This configuration makes it remarkably difficult to spill the coffee when it's full and sitting on the desk. The wide base lowers the center of gravity, making tipping over unlikely. That seems the most rational choice for a container that will hold valuable liquid and which can't be closed very well. (Coffee is a VERY valuable liquid--I have to guard my french press when the coffee maker goes down....there have been attempted raids....)
If the container will be closed, you'd think space would be an important consideration. What I mean is, you'd think they'd want to pack as much liquid--in this case wine--as possible into as small an area as possible. The relatively pointy bottom of these containers means that a huge volume of space is wasted not holding liquid. Now, maybe you can get away with that at home, or in a warehouse or something--but I've seen these containers on ancient shipwrecks. Space is ALWAYS at a premium in a ship; any space not holding cargo is losing the captain money. And if it's relatively top-heavy, like these are, it's even worse. Ships move in weird ways, which can easily upset such vessles I would think. A cylindrical vessle would be much more efficient, even factoring in the wasted space due to the round shape (cone volume=1/3*b*h; cylinder volume=b*h).
Yet for some reason they seem to be popular. The Greeks used them. The Egyptions did. The Romans did, though that may be because they were copying the Greeks. I know other cultures have, but I can't think of the names off-hand. These aren't illiterates who are merely copying what their ancestors did--these are advanced civilizations (for their time) that knew engineering principles and had showed a fair bit of adaptability (the Egyptions adapted to new fighting techniques, and the Romans were as interested in copying good ideas as developing them). Simply put, they should have known better.
What makes this shape so attractive that people are willing to use it over and over again? I have to be missing something; what is it?
via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=263090&goto=newpost
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