The stone statue of a sphinx with a human face loses weight

There is a Sphinx in front of the Egyptian pyramids, 57 meters long and 20 meters high. According to legend, in order to make his personal image go down in history, Pharaoh Keferun of the ancient Eluo fourth Dynasty ordered him to carve a stone statue symbolizing majesty and power. In advance, a master craftsman carved a solid rock into a lion, the head of which was carved in the face of Keflon. After carving it, it was placed in front of the pyramid with the human face facing the rising sun, indicating that the ancient Egyptians believed in the sun god. Later, the Egyptians successively carved many large and small stone statues of the sphinx.

In 1843, the Tsar of Russia stole some of the sphinx from Egypt and put them in his palace to browse.

Exactly 100 years have passed, and the place where our story takes place will shift from the pyramids of Egypt and the palace of the Tsar to the museum of Leningrad in the former Soviet Union.

The hero of this story is not the pharaoh Kefron of the fourth dynasty of ancient Eluo, nor the Tsar of Russia, but an old scholar of archaeology in the former Soviet Union.

One day, the old scholar came to the Leningrad Museum, stopped in front of a stone sphinx, investigated it carefully, and said in surprise: "I can't believe that this Sphinx is suffering from marasmus."

Nearby, a museum administrator listened to the old scholar's words and asked with a smile: "You say that it is' thin ', what is the basis?"

The old scholar said, "I have seen the archives of this Sphinx, and it clearly states its height, length, waist and neck, but now it seems to have become much smaller."

The administrator said: "Yes, we found that on the ground around the stone statue, there are often layers of powder, and the winter is more serious, and the powder also contains some small grains of sand." Pray, what is the reason for this?"

The old scholar said: "Compared with the climate in Egypt and here, we can understand the reason for its' wasting ', the air here is more humid than Egypt, and the humid air contains a lot of water, water combined with oxygen and sulfuric acid gas, and attacked the stone statue, melting some substances in the stone, causing chemical reactions in other substances, so that the structure of the stone statue became more and more loose."

The old scholar only touched the Sphinx gently, and a large lump of powder was smeared on his finger. Pointing to the stone statue, he continued: "There are many cracks in the stone statue, and our winter in Leningrad is much colder than in Egypt. In such cold weather, the water in the crevices of the stone statues freezes into countless water ice.

When the water freezes into ice, the volume will increase by a tenth, so he tries to stretch out his body. This elongation is huge, and it can exert a force of 5,000 kilograms on an area as big as a finger, widening the cracks in the statue, and then some powder will fall down."

The administrator said happily, "Sir, it seems that the stone statue's 'thin silk' has been touched by you to the root of the disease, then please prescribe a 'prescription'."

The old scholar said, "Please cover the whole body of the stone statue with oil and plug up all the crevices so that air and water can no longer attack it."

The administrator reported the words of the old scholar to the curator and treated the stone statue's neck according to this "prescription."

After that, the stone statue of the sphinx did not "lose weight" anymore.