"Imaging the Cheops Pyramid", by Huy Duong Bui

Éditions Springer, décembre 2011, XVII, 83 p. 51 illus., 39 in color.

"The author is an expert in theories and applications in Solid Mechanics and Inverse Problems, a former professor at Ecole Polytechnique and now works with Electricité de France on maintenance operations on nuclear power plants. In the Autumn of 1986, after the end of the operation on the King’s chamber conducted under the Technological and Scientific Sponsorship of EDF, to locate a cavity, he was called to solve a mathematical inverse problem, to find the unknown tomb of the King and the density structure of the whole pyramid based on measurements of microgravity made inside and outside of the pyramid.
This book recounts the various search operations on the pyramid of Cheops made at the request of the Egyptian and French authorities in 1986-1987. After the premature end of the Cheops operation in the Autumn of 1986, following the fiasco of unsuccessful drillings in the area suspected by both architects G. Dormion and J.P. Goidin and microgravity auscultation, EDF and CPGF (a geophysical company) teams continued their researches with measurements already made, trying this time an inversion of the Newton gravity equation for the entire pyramid and using another theoretical team led by the author. The inverse problem solution confirmed the results of auscultations, but found no cavity. However, the image of the average density at the surface of the entire pyramid forms a sort of square “spiral” probably related to the construction method. In 2000, Jean-Pierre Houdin considered the author’s results of 1988 as a confirmation of his theory of the internal ramp tunnel. Since then the author has done additional research and found that classical theories of the construction based on degrees and the particular mode of stones filling can also report the same densitogram. The book is richly illustrated with color figures. It is dotted with information concerning Physics, Mechanics and the History of Egyptian Antiquities. The book ends with the greatest mystery of the pyramid about the unknown tomb of the King and a dream to see the tomb at an unexpected place." (présentation de l'éditeur)

Table of contents :

Introduction.- Preface Marc Albouy.- On the Cheops pyramid studies.- Historical context of the studies.- The mystery of the unknown Chamber.- What we know and do not know in the pyramid.- The Petrie sequence and the puzzle of stones .- Herodotus or Saurenon.- Microgravity in Geomechanics.- A high precision balance.- Auscultation of sites.- The limitations of auscultation.- Inverse problems and the butterfly effect.- The working conditions in the Cheops operation.- The blind test.- Density images by microgravity.- The second solar boat discovery.- The measurement campaign in the pyramid site.- Measurement results near the King’s Chamber structure.- The low mean density 2.05 T/m3 of the pyramid.- Interstices and voids.- Direct computation of gravity due to a cavity.- Inversion of gravity data for finding cavities near the chambers.- Some Mathematics of the inversion.- Imaging the pyramid with microgravity measurements.- Three-dimensional meshes of the pyramid.- Results on the imaging of the surface density.- The Densitogram.- Raising the density.- Virtual reconstruction of the pyramid.- The Hölscher ramp and the steps of the construction.- Macroscopic and microscopic points of view.- The densitogram and the Borchardt pyramid.- The Houdin internal ramp tunnel.- The mystery of the King’s tomb.- Golden number and intertwined Spirals.- Appendix.- Filling the cornices.- True density and mean density.- Comparison with observations.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Permissions and Acknoledgments.- Index.- About the Author.

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