Hacker News Reader

Comment by CodeSgt | Hacker News Reader

I feel like everyone this far is missing something, or perhaps just I am.

I understand that a wavy wall will be stronger than a straight wall of the same thickness, therefore if you need that additional strength it technically uses fewer bricks to reach it.

That said, if the alternative is a 2 layer straight wall, is the wavy wall equally as strong? Or is it just stronger than the single layer wall?

Without knowing anything about the subject matter, I’d assume that the strength goes in order of single-layer straight, wavy, double-layer straight. No? Seems like needing just the amount of strength the wavy wall provides, and no more, would be a fairly rare use case. Leading to double-layer straights most of the time anyway.

View on HN

The wavy design is probably just as strong as the double layer (possibly stronger depending on the direction of force).

The issue with a single layer wall isn't really the strength between bricks, or the bricks themselves - it's that a single layer wall has a very narrow base and is subject to tipping over.

The wave in the design makes the base of the wall act is if it were MUCH wider, preventing the tipping action of a single layer.

So the wavy design is only as strong as single layer of bricks, but it has a base 2 to 3 times the width of even the double layer wall designs. It will be much more resistant to tipping forces, but less resistant to impact forces.

The thing about most walls is they aren't really load bearing - they just delineate owned space - so the wavy design is great for large properties. Much less great if it's a tiny space and you're losing a good chunk of sqft to the wave.

Additionally: you need the wall to be "stable enough", not "equally as stable as a double-layer base". Possibly, double-layer brick walls are over-engineered.

The article also mentions buttresses. I presume you can build a single brick wall and keep that strong with a buttress every x meters. I understood from the article that a wavy wall uses less bricks than that.

It's a matter of stability more so than "strength", no? Having never attempted to push over a brick wall, I'd guess that it'd be easier to do so for a straight double wythe than a wavy single... but yeah, baseless intuition here!

The base of a double wythe wall is still only like 7", which if you're stacking say 84" of brick on top of that... seems pretty unstable to me.

"Strength" is used to refer to things like wind hitting the wall, not a car. That is, the wall toppling, not breaking. So the wavy wall with its wide base is quite strong.

Well, tbf the article doesn’t even try to explain how wavy walls are stronger than straight ones, or how fewer bricks are needed.

It doesn't need to, a child understands this. The only thing the article needed to explain was how the title should be interpreted, and it did fine in this respect.

If any child supposedly understands this, why does HN consider this novel? The questions in this post also don’t support your comment.

There’s also no need to be impolite. If it’s such an easy concept that you actually already understand, maybe explain it in layman terms instead?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com