John Ings wrote in message . ..
On 6 Mar 2004 03:09:10 -0800, (Cliff Huprich) wrote:

(1)See http://www.math.ubc.ca/people/facult...l/bpi/bpi.html
for math calculations whose formulas I can't reproduce in a newsgroup
post.

John,
Would this not imply that:
A) They already used the decimal system
B) Had invented zero

No. Like most cultures before the invention of zero and the decimal
system, they used a complex series of continued fractions. See item 3.
on the reference page.

C) Could easily do long division

No, with difficulty did long devision. The Romans for instance did
long division in Roman numerals, and if you think that ain't a trick
just try it!

A) Someone is playing fast and loose with numerology (as well as
languages)and trying to fudge things just a little?

Just how old is that supposed to be, anyway?

Note the site I got it from --UBC-- is a university, not a religious
propaganda site with an axe to grind. The paper itself was submitted
to a major university in France. Note the references at the bottom of
the page. I suspect :

W. M. Feldman 1965: Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy,
Hermon Press, New-York.
and
R. J. Gillings 1972: Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs,
The MIT Press, Cambridge.
would be informative if you're near a university library.

Johm
Not the date of the papers from the later apologists (I presume)
and numerologists but the date of the decimal system and zero, as
contrasted to the presumed date of the original writings.

Also, as it was not crossposted, you may not have seen this
post:
[
Subject: Cliff's Magic Bowl -10 inch OD 30 inch OD Circumference
From: cal (Ken)
Date: 06 Mar 2004 18:38:21 GMT

Cliff asks:

John,
Would this not imply that:
A) They already used the decimal system
B) Had invented zero
C) Could easily do long division

Or
A) Someone is playing fast and loose with numerology (as well as
languages)and trying to fudge things just a little?

Just how old is that supposed to be, anyway?


But you're missing the real important points Cliff.

1) IF the hebrew god created this and can't get PI accurate beyond 5
decimals,
then why do so many worship him as omnipotent.

2) IF all this stuff was invented by men who were so clever that the
word meant
the number accurate to 5 decimal places, then why do so many worship
their
invented god as an omnipotent being?

Just a thought from a born only once (that I can remember) agnostic.


Ken
Cybercut Precision Machining-
"Quality is created, not controlled."
]

I suppose I should ask why their "diety" did not know of
the Pythagorean Theorem, Quantum Theory, the real numbers, or,
really, much about the universe at all.
--
Cliff

[
Now consider the tortoise and the eagle.

The tortoise is a ground-living creature. It is impossible to live
nearer the ground without being under it. Its horizons are a few
inches away. It has about as good a turn of speed as you need to hunt
down a lettuce. It has survived while the rest of evolution flowed
past it by being, on the whole, no threat to anyone and too much
trouble to eat.

And then there is the eagle. A creature of the air and high places,
whose horizons go all the way to the edge of the world. Eyesight keen
enough to spot the rustle of some small and squeaky creature half a
mile away. All power, all control. Lightning death on wings. Talons
and claws enough to make a meal of anything smaller than it is and at
least take a hurried snack out of anything bigger.

And yet the eagle will sit for hours on the crag and survey the
kingdoms of the world until it spots a distant movement and then it
will focus, focus, focus on the small shell wobbling among the bushes
down there on the desert. And it will leap...

And a minute later the tortoise finds the world dropping away from it.
And it sees the world for the first time, no longer one inch from the
ground but five hundred feet above it, and it thinks: what a great
friend I have in the eagle.

And then the eagle lets go.

And almost always the tortoise plunges to its death. Everyone knows
why the tortoise does this. Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake
off. No one knows why the eagle does this. There's good eating on a
tortoise but, considering the effort involved, there's much better
eating on practically anything else. It's simply the delight of eagles
to torment tortoises.

But of course, what the eagle does not realize is that it is
participating in a very crude form of natural selection.

One day a tortoise will learn how to fly.
]

From Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods"