A horde of people

Given the total number of person hours from the last problem, and assuming that one can work a slave for 12 hours a day continuously, 365 days a year, how many people would it take to generate enough work to simply raise the blocks of the pyramid off the ground in 20 years?

Note: the answer is around 100. In other words, roughly 100 people, doing nothing for 12 hours a day but lifting stuff, would barely generate enough mechanical energy simply to get the pyramid blocks in place! When you think about the addition of friction, carving the blocks, feeding people, moving blocks along the ground, etc. you rapidly understand why building the great pyramid required the effort of tens of thousands of people over twenty years.

Image credit: Canadian Museum Of History


The answer is 106.85.

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3 solutions

Naimish Khara
Jun 25, 2014

as it is said that a person can work only for 12 hours we can consider our day as of 12 hours. now no. of hours in 20 years = 20 365 12=87600 so total human required=9360370/87600=107(round off)

It is possible to observe that because the slaves are working for 50 % 50\% of the day, and they are working 100 % 100\% of the year, they are working for 50 % 50\% of the time. This means that there are 0.5 20 = 10 0.5*20 = 10 years of work per slave, which is 87600 87600 hours.

To find the answer, simply work out 9.37 E 6 ÷ 87600 9.37E6 \div 87600 , which comes to 107 107 slaves.

Oscar Nielsen
Jun 8, 2014

With the medium work, the work that need to take the blocks to the center of mass, and the power in 20 years, the number of slaves is the medium work divide power in 20 years.

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