Egypt is known for a multitude of engineering accomplishments, but most people don't know about the Aswan Dam. Any dam, by the way, has an immense amount of mathematics behind the structure's stability. The amount of force that a dam holds up is enormous, unimaginable actually.

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To think that the materials holding back a magnitude of a force larger than our minds can ever picture is astonishing. Plus, a man could make such a structure like that is equally astonishing.

To give you an actual number, the properties of hydrostatic forces on submerged objects is used to find the force that the Aswan Dam holds back on a daily basis.

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The equations for hydrostatic pressure is

p = γ *hc

where p is hydrostatic pressure, γ (gamma) is the specific weight of water, and hc is the height of the free surface of water to the centroid of the submerged object. The centroid being the center of the object in this situation because the Aswan Dam is rectangular.

Also, pressure, in general, is

p = F / A

which p is still pressure, F is the force, and A is the area of the submerged object.

Putting these equations together, because both of the pressures are the same, we get the following equation:

F / A = γ *hc

As we are looking for the force that these dams are holding back, we solve for force. Finally, the equation becomes

F = γ * hc * A

We know all the variables' numeric values, and just plug them into the equation to see how much force, specifically the Aswan Dam, is holding back!

We know by simply looking up the dimensions of the dam that it stands 364 feet high while having a length of 12,570 feet! To find the area, we multiply these two numbers together (base * height for a rectangle) ending with an area of 4,575,480 square feet.

The γ, specific weight of water, is 62.4 lb per cubic foot.

The hc is 364 feet / 2, or 182 feet.

Plugging these into the force equation, we end up with 51,962,811,264 lb. More simply, this number becomes 5.2 * 10 ^ 10 lb in scientific notation. 52 billion pounds is being held back by the Aswan Dam! It is extremely difficult to quantify in my head 52 billion pounds.

Now if we want to do one more tiny calculation, we can divide that 52 billion by the square footage or the area to get how much force there is behind each square foot of the dam's surface. Doing this, we get 11,356.8 lb per square foot!

There should be a greater appreciation for dams, not only for their hydroelectric potential but also for the magnitude of force they withstand every day at every moment.