Which mechanism limited the maximum height of early Egyptian obelisks despite stable base design?

💡 Explanation

When raising obelisks, tensile stress concentrates near the lifting point because the stone's own weight creates bending moment, leading to potential cracking. Therefore tensile failure limits height, rather than creep, resonance, or vortex shedding which are negligible at the scale and timescales involved.

• Which navigational challenge did Harrison's H4 chronometer overcome in 18th-century long-distance maritime navigation?
• Which mechanism most enabled the widespread use of iron in ancient civilizations, overcoming its brittleness?
• Which structural risk increased during Ur-Nammu's ziggurat construction when clay bricks fully dried before placement?
• Which environmental consequence followed the shift to intensive maize cultivation in the pre-Columbian Valley of Tehuacan?
• Which defensive outcome resulted from counterweight trebuchets during medieval sieges against fortifications?
• Which risk was amplified in ancient Mesopotamia when arsenic impurities diffused intergranularly within cast bronze tools?