Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by api 2103 days ago
Is this why the Pentagon is a pentagon? I always thought it was to contain the lloigor to prevent it from assimilating souls.
3 comments

No, Bastion forts are not convex polygons like the Pentagon, they are concave because the concavities create kill zones where the fort can fire at attackers from the sides as well as the front.

The Pentagon is an (irregular) pentagon because of the roadways surrounding the site when it was selected.

The original chosen site was on Arlington Farms and was pentagonal. The current site wasn't, but they (mostly) kept the original design.
Is the Pentagon not regular? It seems like it is from pictures…
It’s definitely to keep him from getting out. We’re very fortunate that only the outer pentagon was broken 19 years ago.
You sure he didn't get out? Have you paid attention to the news since 2001?
When it was built we (USA) also had five branches of service: Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force & Coast Guard.
This is commonly repeated but is completely false. The Pentagon was completed in 1943 but the Air Force didn’t exist as a separate branch until 1947.

I can’t find any evidence that the Coast Guard was ever headquartered in the Pentagon.

Yea, thanks! I heard it once on a tour of DC. A bit more history I learned today from here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-p...
> During World War II, messengers traveled the hallways by bike or roller skates.

Amazing.

If I ever gain the ability to time travel I'm taking roller blade technology back to the 1940s to see what effect it has on the war effort.