An essay on the effect of acqueducts in ancient Rome A basic fact of life: humans
             need water to survive. Therefore, it is not surprising that water has played an
             important role in history. All of the ancient civilizations, including Rome, had to deal
             with the problem of a steady water supply. Rome's solutions had both positive and
             negative results. At first glance, one would think that Roae would have no problem
             supplying water to her people. After all, the city was built on a river. Why would
             water have to be brought into the city? There were several reasons: first of all, river
             water is not known for its cleanliness. It may do for irrigation, but not for drinking.
             Drinking water would either have be drawn up from wells, or brought in to the cities
             from pure sources in the mountains. However, digging wells enough for several ten
             thousand people is not practical, as wells need to be spaced far apart. Thus, the need
             for aqueducts. Bringing water in from the mountains was no simple matter. The
             easiest method of transporting water was gravity feed via a sloped channel or pipe.
             However, there were hills and valleys which must be crossed. The Roman engineers
             used a variety of techniques to overcome these obstacles. First, the rate of descent for
             the channel must be determined. Using geometry and trigonometry, this is a relatively
             simple problem of triangulation. Vetruvius said that each channel "must be leveled
             with a fall of not less than half a foot in 100 feet." These calculations indicate that the
             Romans had sufficient mathematical knowledge to undertake the aqueduct programs,
             as well as engineering expertise. Since the channel for the water must go in a straight
             line, then the next problem was where to put the line. The placement would have to
             take into account the changes in elevation along the course of the channel. The
             Romans took a course of compromise in their constructio
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