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General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Pseudoscience-is-malarkey on 26/01/2021 03:51:11

Title: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Pseudoscience-is-malarkey on 26/01/2021 03:51:11
Just to clarify, but I don't mean a small miniature house for pastry or fireplace decoration, I'm talking about one normal sized humans could live in.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Bored chemist on 26/01/2021 08:37:35
Am I allowed to cheat and use another carbohydrate- cellulose?
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: alancalverd on 26/01/2021 11:57:04
I used to work for a baker who converted flour and sugar into a very nice house through the Trade Process.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Kryptid on 26/01/2021 20:15:28
As a person who bakes cakes regularly (as a hobby: there's no way I'd do this professionally unless I was desperate for money), I can say that would be extremely difficult unless you either have a loose definition of the words "cake" or "house" or you allow for non-conventional circumstances. Cake is, of course, soft and highly compressible. One way I could think of to deal with that would be to build your cake house in the Arctic so that the cold would freeze it. I'd probably go for something dense like a flourless chocolate cake. Make the whole thing into a pyramidal shape, let it freeze, then carve out the inside. Alternatively, make frozen bricks of flourless cake and build an igloo out of them.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Bored chemist on 26/01/2021 20:25:49
Has anyone measured the compressive strength of a sugar cube?

Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: axscientist on 26/01/2021 21:37:24
I believe that it is certainly possible, but it would be gone as soon as it rained. Animals would eat it. It wouldn't be very durable.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Kryptid on 26/01/2021 23:13:15
Has anyone measured the compressive strength of a sugar cube?

Funnily enough, it appears so: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080616300919#:~:text=Properties%20of%20sugar%20cubes.&text=Unconfined%20compression%20strength%20tests%20(Fig,the%20range%200.7%E2%80%931.3%25.

Quote
Unconfined compression strength tests (Fig. 1) indicated a mean strength of 2325 kPa and a standard deviation of 305 kPa.

Concrete has a compressive strength from 17,000 kPa to over 70,000 kPa: https://centralconcrete.com/wp-content/themes/centralconcrete/images/cip/35pr.pdf
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Petrochemicals on 11/02/2021 06:47:08
Has anyone measured the compressive strength of a sugar cube?

Funnily enough, it appears so: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080616300919#:~:text=Properties%20of%20sugar%20cubes.&text=Unconfined%20compression%20strength%20tests%20(Fig,the%20range%200.7%E2%80%931.3%25.

Quote
Unconfined compression strength tests (Fig. 1) indicated a mean strength of 2325 kPa and a standard deviation of 305 kPa.

Concrete has a compressive strength from 17,000 kPa to over 70,000 kPa: https://centralconcrete.com/wp-content/themes/centralconcrete/images/cip/35pr.pdf
I would say
Has anyone measured the compressive strength of a sugar cube?

Funnily enough, it appears so: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038080616300919#:~:text=Properties%20of%20sugar%20cubes.&text=Unconfined%20compression%20strength%20tests%20(Fig,the%20range%200.7%E2%80%931.3%25.

Quote
Unconfined compression strength tests (Fig. 1) indicated a mean strength of 2325 kPa and a standard deviation of 305 kPa.

Concrete has a compressive strength from 17,000 kPa to over 70,000 kPa: https://centralconcrete.com/wp-content/themes/centralconcrete/images/cip/35pr.pdf
I wouldn't think that sugar lumps are  possible in a house as the tenancy of sugar to attract moisture, it would quickly dissolve. Plus the fart that the compressive strength is far harder to achieve for higher values.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: Bored chemist on 11/02/2021 18:50:38
Plus the fart that the compressive strength is far harder to achieve for higher values.
Thanks for those words of wisdom. I am sure we will all treasure them.
Title: Re: Is it possible to build a house entirely from bread, cake and sugar?
Post by: wolfekeeper on 19/03/2021 00:23:56
Am I allowed to cheat and use another carbohydrate- cellulose?
Cellulose is a polymer made of sugar. You can also make other polymers from sugar. So you can make reinforced plastic from sugar. It's perfectly possible to make an entire house from reinforced plastic.

Also, wood is made from sugars produced from photosynthesis, so a wood hut technically meets the standard(!)