HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Nov. 30, 2005 The elevation at the top of Pike’s Peak is around 14,000 feet above sea level, but Pike’s Peak rises from a plateau that is already 5,000 feet above sea level, so we may say that, in round figures, Pike’s Peak is 9,000 feet tall. Looking at Yahoo Images, I see that the slopes leading to the summit are very gentle, perhaps in the 20° to 30° range, but to be conservative, let us assume that sides slope up at 45°. If we consider Pike’s Peak conical, then the diameter of the base would be 18,000 and the radius 9,000 feet. Converting the height and the radius of the base of the peak to yards, we have 3000 yards for either figure. The volume of a cone is 1/3 x pi x r^2 x h, that is, one-third pi times the radius squared times the height: V = .3333 x 3.1416 x 3000^2 x 3000 = approximately 29,000,000,000 cubic yards. Visiting a number of websites with quotations for rock removal, I see greatly divergent figures, depending on a lot of factors, but it looks as if they tend to average about $50 per cubic yard. Multiplying this by the volume of Pike’s Peak, we find that removing the peak would cost $1,450,000,000,000, or, $1.45 trillion. The longitude and latitude of Pike’s Peak are 105° West and 39° North. On the 39th parallel, a degree of longitude measures about 53.6 miles. If we follow the 39th parallel westward, we reach the Pacific Ocean in Mendocino County, California, about 124° West, 19 degrees from Pike’s Peak, let us say about 1020 miles away. 29,000,000,000 cubic yards of stone weighing 150 pounds per cubic foot, which is typical, would amount to 59,000,000,000 tons of rock. A jumbo earth haulage truck can move 240 tons at a time, which means that almost 250,000,000 trips would have to be made to haul all that rock to the Pacific Ocean. Multiplying this by the 1000 miles from Pike’s Peak to the Pacific Ocean, we see that moving the mountain to the sea would involve 250,000,000,000 truck-miles. This kind of haulage may cost as much as $5.35 a mile. At that rate, haulage would come to about $1,300,000,000,000. Removal and haulage then would add up to $2,750,000,000,000, or $2.75 trillion. Now let us look at Matthew 21:21 from the King James Bible, “If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” So if Biblical promises were negotiable, one could earn quite a bit of money by applying them to real-life situations. Just suppose you had been present when the city of Los Angeles was building the Red Line of its Metro system. The final cost of around $5 billion was considered outrageous. The difficulty was tunneling through the Santa Monica Mountains that lie between Hollywood and North Hollywood. If you had been there, endowed with Biblical powers, you could have made yourself a civic hero and earned a handsome profit. I don’t think anyone wants to cast Pike’s Peak into the sea, though, so your bluff won’t be called on that one. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
