Other Jimness > Cinder Spires Spoilers
Minerals.
KeyMasterOfGozer:
--- Quote from: Brightbane on October 16, 2015, 04:33:20 PM ---It doesn't specifically say what it's made out of. Just that the second layer was filled with "Masonry and wooden construction"
But I wouldn't think a wooden floor 2 miles across would be stable enough to hold buildings. The would would start rotting and stuff and constantly have to be replaced, and the supports would have to be huge. I'm assuming it's made out of some kind of stone
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There is no stone material on Earth that could make an unsupported floor 2 miles across either. Stone/concrete has great compressive strength, but very low shear strength and tensile strength. It is also very heavy. You would have to have arches and lots of columns along with steel beams and supports. Wood is actually much better at tensile strength than stone or masonry.
That said, wood also couldn't support a 2 mile floor without lots of supports, and concrete's great compressive strength would be more suited to having things piled on top of it (like large buildings).
In reality, it's probably best not to think about the details of this, because the engineering details are probably impossible to work out as Jim writes about it. At least not without inventing some super-material like spirestone, or some other "magical" means. Maybe they were able to put lift crystals in the floor?
Gman:
Wood seems to last a long time in this world without rot. It was stated that some of the wooden airships were centuries old and seemed to be in great shape.
Brightbane:
--- Quote from: Gman on October 17, 2015, 03:08:32 PM ---Wood seems to last a long time in this world without rot. It was stated that some of the wooden airships were centuries old and seemed to be in great shape.
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Yeah, but these boats are treated and constantly undergoing repairs. The ship may be 500 years old, but I can guarantee that the wood has been replaced several times over
Quantus:
--- Quote from: KeyMasterOfGozer on October 17, 2015, 01:48:09 PM ---There is no stone material on Earth that could make an unsupported floor 2 miles across either. Stone/concrete has great compressive strength, but very low shear strength and tensile strength. It is also very heavy. You would have to have arches and lots of columns along with steel beams and supports. Wood is actually much better at tensile strength than stone or masonry.
That said, wood also couldn't support a 2 mile floor without lots of supports, and concrete's great compressive strength would be more suited to having things piled on top of it (like large buildings).
In reality, it's probably best not to think about the details of this, because the engineering details are probably impossible to work out as Jim writes about it. At least not without inventing some super-material like spirestone, or some other "magical" means. Maybe they were able to put lift crystals in the floor?
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Fair points all. Do we know that it spans the whole two-miles (or even just the habitable square portion) with no column supports? The Builder-made Spirestone is enough a fictional material that Im fine with is having unusual tensile strength and able to span more, but with the common construction techniques I was picturing a lot of cramped areas in the lower level, and lots of support columns, even simple brick stacks could do quite a lot.
knnn:
--- Quote from: Quantus on October 19, 2015, 01:17:39 PM ---Fair points all. Do we know that it spans the whole two-miles (or even just the habitable square portion) with no column supports? The Builder-made Spirestone is enough a fictional material that Im fine with is having unusual tensile strength and able to span more, but with the common construction techniques I was picturing a lot of cramped areas in the lower level, and lots of support columns, even simple brick stacks could do quite a lot.
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The map on the inner cover doesn't seem to show multiple support columns, nor does it show any change in the regular habble layout that would indicate the existence of these columns. That might just be artistic license though.
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