“ If the beam is not made perfectly (for example, it is bent or it is made out of a weaker material like straw) we can pretend that it is straight and made out of metal, and would therefore be able to hold an ariah. ”

“ The lack of precision can be attributed to a number of factors, including the fact that the rabbis compiling the mishnah were just rounding off, the fact that they had no standard units of measurement, making such precision difficult and that they were not as mathematically advanced as some other contemporary civilizations. Nehemiah, a late antique Jewish rabbi and mathematician explained this apparent lack of precision by considering the thickness of the pool, and assuming that the thirty amot was the inner circumference, while the ten amot was the diameter of the outside of the pool. ”