I'm writing a fantasy novel where one part of the plot evolves around a huge bridge contruction, made out of meteoric iron and abandoned after its creation. In a central european climate, Approximately how many years or centuries could such a construction possibly survive the corrosion?
How long would a bridge made of meteoric iron last without any repairs or attendance?
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by Wannabe a...
- Topics:
- bridge, rust, iron, corrosion, repair, contruction, bridges
Details:
Responses (1)
This just makes me wonder what you are thinking. Meteoric iron means made from an iron meteor: it fell from the sky. Swords are made from meteoric iron, and there are very few such swords because, you know, not many meteors fall from the sky and not many of those are made of iron.
Next you need to learn about properties of matter. Swords are made of iron and tempered, and rifle barrels are made of iron and tempered, but there is no resemblance between swords and rifle barrels. You want a sword to be hard so it holds a sharp edge, even if it might shatter. You want a rifle barrel to be flexible and never ever shatter. Considering properties, a bridge resembles a rifle barrel more than a sword.
The bottom line here is that bridges are simply not made of meteoric iron.
You can write a story any way you want it. If you want it to sound believable, you have to study properties of matter, shear strength, shatter resistance, and such like that. There is a magazine, Analog Science Fiction, where writers share advice for new writers. You need to study a few of those essays.
www.amazon.com/Analog-Science-Fiction-Fact/dp/B00005N7VP/ref=sr_1_3
Check first at a public library to see if you can read back issues.
Isn't the purpose of a site like this to be able to share knowledge so you will NOT have to spend hours or days on librarys in hope if finding the answer to your question?
There is a famous iron bridge in Shropshire, England.
Pretent we are talking about that one.
Pretent it would be left unattended as soon as it was built.
Pretent that the fundament kept steady and that no major natural disasters happened.
How long before corrosion took its toll?
If anyone could give me an assessment ranging from 10 to 10 000 years it would be very much appreciated.
The purpose of a site like this is to get insight that might take a lifetime to get any other way. The insight that many young people need is that librarians know where to find knowledge, and knowing that is often more important than the factoid they were originally looking for. You might never have learned by yourself that what you want is called "properties of matter", and now you know that a librarian is a great source of guidance on ANY subject.
Anyway, I have told you everything I know about this subject, so there is nothing but to make up a better question and ask somebody else.
Well, I know that meteoric iron is rare on earth and that the biggest iron meteor found on earth weighed "only" 60 tons. But since this is a fantasy novel taking place in a fantasy world, the rarity of this kind of iron on earth becomes irrelevant.
This bridge is being built by an alien race not yet capable of extracting iron from iron ore.
So if you buy the premise that these guys were stupid enough to try to build an iron bridge and then abandon it, could it bare its on weigth for 1 year, 100 years or 5000 years?