B Bar Que.
I made a firepit in the back yard Sunday.
My wife initially laid out the brick in a circular pattern.
"That's about the size I want it" she said.
Of course, a "circular pattern" is not enough for me. It needed to be a circle. I sat for a while, trying out different patterns, and that's when I had the bright idea of using some math to figure out the exact placement of the bricks in a circular firepit.
So I thought a little about what to do. I scribbled some things on a piece of paper, not much...just a rough idea of what I wanted. Each brick is 7.75 inches long, so immediately I knew I had the length of one side of a triangle.
Now, I knew that I was going to make a pattern that would repeat every 90 degrees, so I reasoned that four bricks over 90 degrees should be fine. This means splitting 90 by 4.
That was really the key part in figuring out what I needed. Once I had the division of the angle, everything else fell into place.
So far, my variables are:
a = 7.75
b
theta = (90/4)
So, if I place a peg in the dirt and measure out from the string at a specific measurement, I should have a round pattern. But how much to measure?
So now I could take the equation tan(theta) = a/b and come up with a value for b, which is the length I should measure from the peg.
Now, my variables are:
a = 7.75
b = 18.71
theta = (90/4)
Now I make an angle of (90/4) or 22.5 degrees using a protractor on a piece of cardboard. I cut out this angle and start to lay out my bricks. The first brick starts at about 18.7 inches from the peg at its left side. I lay the next brick down using my angle template, then the next one and so on, making sure the angle is exact. From time to time I also check the measurement along the left side of the brick from the peg. It's perfect.
Soon, I have a perfect circular pattern of 16 bricks upon which I can pile more bricks in an offset but identical pattern. Eventually I have a firepit five bricks tall.
That night, Mrs. Buddy and I sat by the new firepit, fire from the logs stolen from my parents' logpile burning brightly in the masonry circle. We made s'mores and got all smoky smelling. It was great.
Who said you never use math in the real world?
My wife initially laid out the brick in a circular pattern.
"That's about the size I want it" she said.
Of course, a "circular pattern" is not enough for me. It needed to be a circle. I sat for a while, trying out different patterns, and that's when I had the bright idea of using some math to figure out the exact placement of the bricks in a circular firepit.
So I thought a little about what to do. I scribbled some things on a piece of paper, not much...just a rough idea of what I wanted. Each brick is 7.75 inches long, so immediately I knew I had the length of one side of a triangle.
Now, I knew that I was going to make a pattern that would repeat every 90 degrees, so I reasoned that four bricks over 90 degrees should be fine. This means splitting 90 by 4.
That was really the key part in figuring out what I needed. Once I had the division of the angle, everything else fell into place.
So far, my variables are:
a = 7.75
b
theta = (90/4)
So, if I place a peg in the dirt and measure out from the string at a specific measurement, I should have a round pattern. But how much to measure?
So now I could take the equation tan(theta) = a/b and come up with a value for b, which is the length I should measure from the peg.
Now, my variables are:
a = 7.75
b = 18.71
theta = (90/4)
Now I make an angle of (90/4) or 22.5 degrees using a protractor on a piece of cardboard. I cut out this angle and start to lay out my bricks. The first brick starts at about 18.7 inches from the peg at its left side. I lay the next brick down using my angle template, then the next one and so on, making sure the angle is exact. From time to time I also check the measurement along the left side of the brick from the peg. It's perfect.
Soon, I have a perfect circular pattern of 16 bricks upon which I can pile more bricks in an offset but identical pattern. Eventually I have a firepit five bricks tall.
That night, Mrs. Buddy and I sat by the new firepit, fire from the logs stolen from my parents' logpile burning brightly in the masonry circle. We made s'mores and got all smoky smelling. It was great.
Who said you never use math in the real world?
posted by Primate Buddy | 11:44 PM
5 Comments:
D.O.R.K.
I thought the circular pattern I laid out was just fine. I must have been doing long complex mathematical formulas in my head without even knowing it!
Did you fall into the burning ring of fire?
HOLY CRAP. I'm gonna have to kill you now Jenn.
I am hungry now.
-N
*scratches head* huh?? I only got to the bit tht about circular patterns not being enough...the rest was in greek..or geek
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