Building a pyramid

wobbles-grogan

How big should a pyramid be? :-)

Im hoping to build the whole thing out of sandstone, but its hard (or at least, time consuming) to mine so how much would you think i'd need?
An 8x8 pyramid be enough? I dont think so, would rather it to be 20x20 at least!

Anyway, anyone have any idea how to work out how much sandstone i'd need to build a 20x20 pyramid? Assiuming I step up 1 block, and come in one block from each side, each time, and that the thing will be mostly hollow!

I know i could count everything out, but thats just annoying and time consuming. I want a forumla people!

chin_grin

It's like that question "How long is a piece of string?". It can be any size, shape, material! It's bleedin' Minecraft! :pac:

But best of luck with it. I'm sure there are a few tutorials on youtube or google if you wanted to make one with caverns and traps and such.

I'd say 1000 x 1000 just to be safe. :P

Krusader

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

How big should a pyramid be? :-)

Im hoping to build the whole thing out of sandstone, but its hard (or at least, time consuming) to mine so how much would you think i'd need?
An 8x8 pyramid be enough? I dont think so, would rather it to be 20x20 at least!

Anyway, anyone have any idea how to work out how much sandstone i'd need to build a 20x20 pyramid? Assiuming I step up 1 block, and come in one block from each side, each time, and that the thing will be mostly hollow!

I know i could count everything out, but thats just annoying and time consuming. I want a forumla people!

Better to use stone and make stairs

Tallon

Gimme 3 minutes, and I'll tell you

chin_grin

Tallon wrote: »

Gimme 3 minutes, and I'll tell you

Been three minutes Tal. C'mon! :pac:

EDIT: Dern it! Ok two.....but now....................three.

Korvanica

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

How big should a pyramid be? :-)

Im hoping to build the whole thing out of sandstone, but its hard (or at least, time consuming) to mine so how much would you think i'd need?
An 8x8 pyramid be enough? I dont think so, would rather it to be 20x20 at least!

Anyway, anyone have any idea how to work out how much sandstone i'd need to build a 20x20 pyramid? Assiuming I step up 1 block, and come in one block from each side, each time, and that the thing will be mostly hollow!

I know i could count everything out, but thats just annoying and time consuming. I want a forumla people!

Any size you want !

But start with an odd number so you can have a single block on top.

See this grid:


Look at it as a plan of your pyramid

7x7
5x5
3x3
1

Off topic PS: im totally gonna win that Oasis game )

wobbles-grogan

Ah yes!
Excellent.

Dunno why i didnt think of that.

Right, ill make a little thing that will calculate how many blocks is needed :-)

Is basically just a loop around:
StartingNumber^2+(startingNumber-2)^2 ... etc until you get to 1.
Awesome thanks!!

Korvanica wrote: »

Any size you want !

But start with an odd number so you can have a single block on top.

See this grid:


Look at it as a plan of your pyramid

7x7
5x5
3x3
1

Off topic PS: im totally gonna win that Oasis game )

Tallon

Tallon wrote: »

Gimme 3 minutes, and I'll tell you

I can't do much here in work too laggy


edit: Also

Layer 0 x = 1
Layer 1 xxx = 8 ----aerial view of layer-> xxx As seen 8 blocks to make this ring layer
Layer 2 xxxxx = 16 x x
Layer 3 xxxxxxx = 24 xxx

So starting from the top each layer below the top is 8 blocks or more. We will denote the very top of the pyramid as layer 0. Now we know each layer is 8 blocks more than the previous layer except in the case that the previous layer is layer 0. So we can create a summation for layers 1 - 58.

58
Σ 8n This summation will account for all blocks below layer 0. But what about layer 0.
n = 1

For layer 0 just add 1 to the summation equation.


58
1 + Σ 8n = 1 + 8+16+24+32+40+48+....+ 464
n = 1


Well this doesn't exactly give us our answer of how many blocks it took to make the pyramid. But at least it shows how big the base of the pyramid is. A whole 464 blocks. WOW.

Using a graphic calculator. Assuming i know how to use the summation function properly on the calculator. It accumulated a total of 13688 blocks + 1 block for layer 0. So a grand total of 13689 blocks. KOOL.

There you go bloggers. If you want to create a crazy big pyramid of a height of 58 that reaches the sky limit. You need to have at least 13689 blocks of sandstone.

Solitaire

Note that using single blocks or steps the practical base limit of a pyramid at sea level is 127*127, for a 64-block-high pyramid. If you were willing to hollow out an ABSURD amount of land this increases to just over 239*239, for a 120-block-high pyramid based on level 6 (i.e. just above the bedrock layer).

Naturally, these sizes are madness, but a structure that size has a LOT of room inside to put mad sh!t in!

deconduo

You forgot that its a hollow pyramid Tallon.

The way I see it is that its going to be:

4 sides of 20 blocks each at the outside -> 4x20. (You actually should take away 4 for the corner blocks because you count them twice)
4 sides of 18 blocks each for the inner edge
4 sides of 18 blocks each for the next level up.
4 side of 16 for the lip again
4 sides of 16 for the next level up.

And so on.

Approximate this as:


And it works out at around 23 stacks of sandstone.

jujumushu

bahahhaaaa this is the funniest thread evar

Gargonaught

This is actually a funny thread with all the weird math symbols and the like when it's actually very very simple to work out :P

This is how you do it easily:

An example using a pyramid with a 1001 x 1001 block base:

STEP 1,
Work out how big your pyramid base will be along one side,
Multiply the number by itself,

1001
x 1001
=======
1,002,001

this gives you the exact amount of blocks if you flatten the pyramid and don't add any step support.

STEP 2,
If you also want the step support added in then add the 4 sides of the pyramid together.

Note: this assumes each side has there own 20 blocks each with no over lap, ie; counting a corner as number 20 of one side and number 1 of another, if you want to have an overlap corner then subtract 4 from the total here.

1001
+1001
+1001
+1001
====
4004

Then minus the answer you get from the total in step 1

1,002,001
- 4,004
========
997,997 = Step support amount.

The reason we do that is because the step support part is the same size as the Pyramid it's just one block lower down so the bottom most layer needs to be removed or you end up with a pyramid that starts 2 blocks high.

STEP 3
Add the answer totals from step 1 and step 2 together

997,997
+ 1,002,001
==========
1,999,998 = Pyramid + support blocks

Step 4
Divide total from step 3 by 64 ... 64 = 1 stack

1.999,998
/ 64
=========
31,249.96875

Yes that'd be 31 thousand 2 hundred and 49 stacks and .96875 blocks.

Step 5

:P


hth

Gargo.


EDIT:

I forgot to add:

You'll need 11.25 stacks for a 20 x 20 pyramid, call it 12 stacks.



Gargo.

wobbles-grogan

Gargonaught wrote: »

This is actually a funny thread with all the weird math symbols and the like when it's actually very very simple to work out :P

snip snip...

Hmm..

Yeah, i was way over complicating things!!

wobbles-grogan

wobbles-grogan wrote: »

Hmm..

Yeah, i was way over complicating things!!

So yeah, made the pyramid last night.

I can now say, that we are all idiots.

Dunno how I didnt see this before.

As the pyramid is hollow(i.e. only 1 block deep per row) , The amount of stone we need is exactly length*width (so length ^2 for a square pyramid)

I used 361 sandstone in mine, as its 19 blocks long by 19 blocks wide.

Looks pretty cool!

Gargonaught

Thats without support blocks at the back of each block on the outside.

My math was sound, i just added in the support blocks in total for your 20x20 as I thought you wanted to know that too so :P

Gargo.

GavinEire

Sounds like a great idea!
I built one of my own too.
Look on Youtube for some cool ideas.