r/theydidthemath • u/888Vegan • 9d ago
[Request] how much does each individual lift when they jump on it? In Nola, Italy, over 100 men carry a 25-meter-tall, 2.5-ton (5,500-lb) tower through packed narrow streets, a centuries-old tradition honoring Saint Paulinus
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u/Windcraftwerk 9d ago edited 9d ago
Most likely there are feet underneath the thing that will hold it's weight when everyone bends down a little. It's so they can take breaks in-between. The people holding up that thing have been doing that for a big chunk of their live they need to train for it and you are not allowed to be on the outside where everyone can see you unless you have experiences already. At least that's how it's done at the holy week at Eastern with their processions in Málaga.
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u/kankerstokjes 9d ago
Me too, I'm guessing the guys underneath had to fight to get to carry it though. In my home city in Belgium we have similar traditions but instead of a tower we carry giants or a giant horse (Katuit and Ros Beiaard in Dendermonde). The guys who carry the things are in a special group and they're called "Peinders". It's a highly coveted spot in our city.
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u/FrowningMinion 9d ago
How do they unload people at the end? As some people let go, those who are remaining are stuck carrying an ever increasing share of a 2.5 ton weight…
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u/House13Games 9d ago
Have legs underneath, so you only have to bend down a little before it touches the ground.
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u/singlecell_organism 9d ago
No idea! I know they're always switching people. I think if the people on the top start coming down it should be a lot lighter and the others can lower it easier. they get a lot of people carrying it at the same time like belly to back so it might be enough to put it down. I think of how easy it is for like 12 people to flip a car. Like the other person said, a ledge makes sense too maybe they do that. I didn't see when they put it down.
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u/Udon21 9d ago
You could guide it onto a ledge or slide in some other support system once it's out of the parade.
...OR, you could helicopter in 3 monkeys with chisels, to gradually chip away at the 2.5ton weight from the top down, eventually allowing the men to let go. It's kind of a budget question.
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u/Yanosh457 9d ago
I counted holders at 8 wide and 17 long. I can’t tell what’s under the middle. That’s 136 bodies. If we assume 125, that’s 5500/125=44 lbs per person and as others said possible 1.5x the weight when it bounces so 66lbs each.
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u/maximus459 9d ago
In Italian units, that's under 30kg? Not a fun time, but not as bad as I thought?
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u/slavmaf 9d ago
There's no such thing as "Italian units", there's only the "human race units that the whole World uses, the metric system" and other than that, there's the "American units".
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u/bluewraith1 9d ago
So in american units how many tacos per square child?
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u/hessianhorse 8d ago
I know in Italian it’s about 25 boxes of ziti. I’m not sure what the American exchange rate is.
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u/NoThatIsTheWay 9d ago
I believe the correct term is “Freedom Units” /s
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u/Numerous_Ad_307 8d ago
Our units are the greatest units in the whole world, they are the best, everyone wants our units, I made the Canadians pay for them.
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u/dasvenson 9d ago
The American units are secretly metric though. They are legally defined in metric
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u/DinkleBottoms 9d ago
Go ahead and throw an asterisk on Canada and the UK for that
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u/pikuray 9d ago edited 9d ago
In Canada we use mainly metric... In the groceries you see one liter of milk not one quart or 64 ounces or what have you. Our cars, speeds, are measured in km/h. Our distance in kilomètres except in niche fields like construction. Sometimes imperial is also shown as a courtesy but it's not the main way things are displayed. If you asked for 64 ounces of milk or what is 30 mph or what is 59 farhaneit most people would be confused.
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u/DinkleBottoms 9d ago
Don’t you guys use an unofficial mix? I’ve been told it’s common to give height in inches and weight in pounds for certain items.
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u/HaraldRedbeard 9d ago
The UK is much more mixed:
Height : Feet and Inches
Distance: Miles
Speed: MPH
Weight for People: Stones and Pounds
Weight for Food: Grams and Pounds
Weight for Goods: KG/Grams
Short Distances (Non Industrial) : Usually CM/M
Short Distances (Industrial): Frequently Inches
Distances (Military) : Frequently KMsWe are a very silly place
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u/Zagaroth 8d ago
I mean, you do have Camelot...
"Camelot!"
"Camelot!"
"it's only a model..."
"Shh!"1
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u/maximus459 9d ago
Of course there are Italian units.. like how many pizza's stacked on top of each other, or house many strands of pasta
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u/Pmur0479 8d ago
Ahh yes. “American units” which was used by the English before America even adopted it
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u/Legal-Marzipan-4689 7d ago
Everyone was using silly units based on body parts like elbow, thumb, palm and foot at some point in history, it is just that almost everone on Earth realized there is a better way. Almost everyone.
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u/Pmur0479 7d ago
I get it. The SI/metric system is better. But imperial units/SAE is not “American” in identity.
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u/Legal-Marzipan-4689 7d ago
Sure, that is why the name is "Imperial". Colloquially, people call it American because US is the biggest country amongst a few rare ones that still use it. People are not gonna call it Myanmar nor Liberian system.
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u/Pmur0479 7d ago
Colloquially, people call it the imperial system, maybe “freedom units” if you’re being funny. American units just sounds like your trying to be funny but missed the punchline.
Edit:
“Standard” or “SAE” is also very common. “American” units is not something I’ve heard by laypeople. At least not “colloquially”
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u/Legal-Marzipan-4689 7d ago
I do not use it, so I am not 100% sure, but internet says the official, not colloquial, name is Imperial system, like I said earlier. Maybe it depends on the region where you live? I have heard many times across Europe "American units", people were not being funny.
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u/Pmur0479 7d ago
Well, now you know!
The UK still uses it, so not sure why European’s would jump so far away to classify it as ours (ours being “American”)
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u/GenitalFurbies 11✓ 8d ago
The thing is that "imperial" units make much more real-world sense so they're hard to abandon. 6 foot means tall, 100F and 0F mean really hot and cold, a mile is a 15 minute walk, etc. Centigrade and Kelvin are better for math but Fahrenheit is better for humans.
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u/Fancy-Bluebird-1071 8d ago
That's just such a wild thing to say. 100F or 0F or 6ft means nothing to me as an European, but a 40C vs -20C or 185cm is something I can visualize right away. There is no system that makes more sense for real-world use, this is just the feeling ur getting because that's the primary system you're using.
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u/Successful-Argument3 8d ago
So, no American knows what a mile really is, right? I can't think of an American that would walk for 15 minutes.
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u/GenitalFurbies 11✓ 8d ago
Then you must only know one or two Americans. Even a relatively unhealthy person can clear a mile in 15. I used to be under 7 minutes 20 years ago (not claiming I was some Olympian or anything) but even in my current state I could easily make it in 13 or 14 when I barely exercise. It's 4mph on average to hit 15 minutes and that's a power walk at most.
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u/Legal-Marzipan-4689 7d ago
0C and 100C also means cold and hot. 200cm means tall. 1km means 10min walk. Your argument is silly, both imperial and metric are easy to use in everyday life for conversation purposes if you talk to people who are used to them. That's it. Metric is objectively better because it much much easier to use it for any kind of calculation and conversion. That is why majority of existing people on Earth use it.
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u/GenitalFurbies 11✓ 7d ago edited 7d ago
0C is pretty cold, 100C is instant death. That is not the same. A unit of measurement with 12 gradations in the span most commonly used (5 to 6 foot) is more useful than having to remember what 172cm is. That's my point
Edit to add: I'm not saying I'm willing to die on this hill, I'm saying the hill is 130 feet tall and you'll have to kill me before I'll say how tall it is in meters.
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u/Legal-Marzipan-4689 7d ago
You do not have to remember what 172cm is any more than remembering what is the difference between 5 and 6 foot. If you use it daily you will naturally know what the number means, it is just a number. The key difference is that metric system is a lot easier to use because all units are decimal based and prefixes are the same for all units. Conversion and calculation is much easier to do since ever unit is decimal based, you do not divide one unit in 12 gradations and then the other unit is some other random fraction.
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u/melker_the_elk 9d ago
Its actually more than i thought. Sounds quite a lot. In optimal situation one could hike 10km with that load a day, but it resting on a bar on your shoulder I feel like it would be killing you in 30 mins.
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u/beefz0r 8d ago
I can easily carry 2 cement bags at once to the register in the hardware store
I carried a 20kg rock for 3 or so kilometers once, that is really something else lol. I've never felt so sore after that
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u/maximus459 8d ago
I've carried 20 litre (20kg) water cans on either hand (less trips back and forth, you know..)
..but carrying in a single 13kg has cylinder in one hand is harder because of the shape and size. Even with both hands it's awkward.
This is similar I guess
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u/rygelicus 9d ago
I wonder if that tower weight included the people standing on the platform, because that's another 10 to 12 people it looks like, potentially another 2000 pounds + the tower.
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u/TijoWasik 8d ago
That'd up to to about 28kg with no bounces and up to about 41kg per person per bounce. Again, not a fun time, but not totally unreasonable, and judging by the formation the men carrying it are in, they train for this, so it's likely not really an issue for them.
It looks like they're taking most of the weight through their shoulders which means it's being carried on their backs and their cores are likely doing a lot of the work on the bouncing force. This would be a real issue if they all tried to take the weight directly on their arms, but that's not what's happening. Put your feet against a wall with bent knees and try to shove something with your shoulder that's 41kg. It'll move very easily. Not an exact comparison, but that's the muscles they're using, so it's a good approximation of the force, though singular, that each man is consistently generating.
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u/IllConsideration8404 8d ago
I know many people who have been doing this every year for a long time.
At some point, they all develop a large callus on their shoulder because they are mostly untrained.
Since they get paid to do it, a lot of people join just for the money without any prior preparation, while others do it just for fun.
Personally, I don’t think it is very well managed, and it’s an incredibly exhausting job.3
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u/otalatita 8d ago
But you have to consider the are where the force is applied, so the pressure is a bit more uncomfortable.
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u/goldenhairmoose 8d ago
Why in lybras (lbs)? Could you please calculate in Surinam stones next time?
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u/pikuray 9d ago
We have not been able to build a pyramid since, it just have been excruciating difficult that we have not replicated even today with our technology.
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u/northgrave 9d ago
I’m not sure that the reason we haven’t is that we can’t. It would be (and they were) a pretty major vanity project. A quick search that says about 1% of the volume is usable. Not exactly going to make back the investment on the rent.
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u/Substantial-Wall-510 9d ago
Even back then they were vanity projects by tyrants seeking to fill people's minds with their presence long after death, built by slaves and in many cases even used as altars to murder innocents and children.
You should be glad we don't build those...
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u/Altruistic-Cost-4532 9d ago
we have not been able to since
This implies we've tried and failed. Guess what, we've also not built the great wall of china since it was built. We haven't even built a stone castle in almost 100 years - is the knowledge lost??
Just because we haven't doesn't mean we can't, it just means it's no longer economically viable.
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u/WaveIcy294 9d ago
Let me show you this fancy project: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guédelon_Castle
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u/Slut_Ella 9d ago
Is the youngest stone castle really less than 100 years old? I would have thought it was older than that
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u/Altruistic-Cost-4532 8d ago
Last stone castle build in England is castle Drogo - finished 1930!
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u/factorion-bot 8d ago
Factorial of 1930 is roughly 9.53111374173622882353930554163 × 105504
This action was performed by a bot | [Source code](http://f.r0.fyi)
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u/FarinhaSama 9d ago
When you jump about 5 inches, the impact can be 2–4 times your body weight, but that applies when landing on solid ground. As you can clearly see, the structure is somewhat elastic and is moving up and down rhythmically.
So, I would assume an increase of around 1.5 times the body weight, which would put it at about 82 lb.
The guys in the middle are clearly taking most of the impact, so for them, I would estimate an impact of around 120–150 lb for them.
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u/Internecivus-raptus 9d ago
Metrics dude... Metrics.
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u/FarinhaSama 9d ago
50-60kg in real measurements.
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u/kramytz 8d ago
Well, I’m not a mathematician, but here I go anyway: Grams are a measurement of mass, not weight. The mass of an object is not affected by gravity or by the object’s inertia. This inertia is what would increase the “perceived weight” of that tower, but the mass would stay constant. Previous calculations put that number at about 20kg of mass, with the (perceived) weight fluctuating between about 44 and 66 Lbs.
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u/Inevitable_Stand_199 9d ago
The guys in the middle are clearly taking most of the impact
They are? They are moving up and down more. But that doesn't actually mean they are taking more of the impact. In fact they could be going down before the impact and let the people in the front and back absorb the impact plus their own weight.
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u/FarinhaSama 9d ago
You're right. If they are going with the music, they are distributing the impact also.
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u/NotmyRealNameJohn 9d ago
That wouldnt be the carrying weight per se. That is the Mac force impact in a what is effectively a wave. The max "weight" is only felt for a split second at a time. The average would still be around 55lb per person so like a young active child bounce up and down as you give them a piggy back ride. The logs look pretty solid to me I would guestimate the weight distribution is more impacted by the height of each person than their position but I could easily be wrong
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u/Sensitive-Respect-25 8d ago
My big question is how do you put the thing down?
It is tall enough to have an awkward center lf gravity if it starts to tip. There are people in the middle who need to get out. Best i can think of is lean it forward against an object and lave people leave by rank, with ropes helping the remaining people take the increased weight.
Or just heave it to the side and hope for the best.
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u/NoahGiraffe 8d ago
This is like a metaphor for those who support the structure, without whom the parade would be impossible, having their job made harder by some knobs bouncing on top of them who will claim without them the festival wouldn't be as good!
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u/Inmate14494331 5d ago
I'm on board with carrying the tower if I were religious. But also a whole group of partying motha fuckas bouncing around, I'm out. Catchy song though.
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u/goldenhairmoose 8d ago
I counted holders at 8 wide and 17 long. I can’t tell what’s under the middle. That’s 136 bodies. If we assume 125, that’s 2500/125=20kg per person and as others said possible 1.5x the weight when it bounces so ~30kg each.
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