I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:17:16 -0800, (daniel
peterman) wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan

Pi are round

Conrbread are square!

Errol Groff

Errol Groff

Instructor, Manufacturing Technology
H.H. Ellis Technical High School
613 Upper Maple Street
Danielson, CT 06239

New England Model Engineering Society
www.neme-s.org

daniel peterman wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan


Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you will get a
clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
daniel peterman wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years.
Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or
pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI
and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in
a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of
poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the
alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan


Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you
will get a
clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE

Gamma, Delta



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
daniel peterman wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan


Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you will
get a
clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE

Chuckle!

Well, if you ask this Greek boy, you'd quickly find that, while that may
make sense to you folks, it doesn't hold a lot of water for those of us that
speak Greek.

How many of you know that Beta is *not* a B? There is no B in the
Greek language, but the sound, when necessary, is made up of two others
letters combined. Beta is pronounced "Veeta".

Judging from that, the alphabet should read A, V, C, ------you get the
idea.

There's only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet as I recall.

Harold

Thats easy, they put them in alphabetical order.
Regards, phredd


Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...

daniel peterman wrote:


I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan


Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you will

get a

clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE


Chuckle!

Well, if you ask this Greek boy, you'd quickly find that, while that may
make sense to you folks, it doesn't hold a lot of water for those of us that
speak Greek.

How many of you know that Beta is *not* a B? There is no B in the
Greek language, but the sound, when necessary, is made up of two others
letters combined. Beta is pronounced "Veeta".

Judging from that, the alphabet should read A, V, C, ------you get the
idea.

There's only 24 letters in the Greek alphabet as I recall.

Harold

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:17:16 -0800, (daniel
peterman) wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan

Pi song http://pi.ytmnd.com/
Randy

daniel peterman wrote:
I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan



Morew than you really want to know about that question may be found he

http://www.percepp.demon.co.uk/alphabet.htm

And SWMBO would be happy to sell you a set of her alphabet cards in case
you forget the names of the letters:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/wkrp/alph1.htm

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

daniel peterman wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan


Whilst on the subject of alphabets, I recently became aware of the book,
"Gadsby" written in english without the author ever once using a word
containing the "most common" letter "e".

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/01.html

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

daniel peterman wrote:
I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?

Gallagher ( the watermelon smashing coomedian) covered this in a TV
special:

Gallagher: Over Your Head (1984)

Red

Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you

will get a

clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE


Gamma, Delta

BUT BUT It ends up Omega not Zeta. ? :-)
...lew...

Keywords:
In article , (daniel peterman) wrote:
I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).

I had a contest with a math nerd buddy in 8th grade to see who could
memorize pi to more places. I won at 26. It is seriously stuck in my
head, and experiments in college showed that I have to be absolutely
stewed before I can't rattle it off any longer. Now that I am in my
mid-50's there's all sorts of stuff I can't remember for 5 minutes, but
pi will be with me till I croak.

My friend estimated that you can calculate the circumference of the
visible universe (which was admittedly smaller back then) within an error
of 4 feet using 26 places.

3.14159265358979323846264338

Doug White

Keywords:
In article d7dqf.4836$u36.3734@trndny01, wrote:
Thats easy, they put them in alphabetical order.
Regards, phredd

Actually, if you do that, you get:

Aitch
Are
Ay
Bee
Cue
Dee
Double U
Ee
Ef
El
Em
En
Ess
Ex
Eye
Gee
Jay
Kay
Oh
Pea
See
Tee
Vee
Wy
Yu
Zee

I got admonished recently for knowing it to 7 dp. I do some glass
blowing and as an engineer I was pin pointed as one who would know the
answer. I did and could recall it to 7 dp, it used to be more but not
26 for sure. For glass blowing often 3 is close enough but for the
serious you can get "pi dividers" which have legs in the ratio of pi.
The use is that you lay out a flat glass construction and then roll it
up, the diameter of the pickup piece is related by pi.

Doug White wrote:

Keywords:
In article , (daniel peterman) wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).


I had a contest with a math nerd buddy in 8th grade to see who could
memorize pi to more places. I won at 26. It is seriously stuck in my
head, and experiments in college showed that I have to be absolutely
stewed before I can't rattle it off any longer. Now that I am in my
mid-50's there's all sorts of stuff I can't remember for 5 minutes, but
pi will be with me till I croak.

My friend estimated that you can calculate the circumference of the
visible universe (which was admittedly smaller back then) within an error
of 4 feet using 26 places.

3.14159265358979323846264338

Doug White

Jeff Wisnia wrote:


Whilst on the subject of alphabets, I recently became aware of the book,
"Gadsby" written in english without the author ever once using a word
containing the "most common" letter "e".

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/gadsby/01.html
Oh, well, if we're going to get into THAT type of word play, I have to
recommend "ladle rat rotten hut". Just type that into Google, and
pick any of the first few hits. The first time I saw this, I laughed
so hard I had trouble breathing.

Jon

It's a kids song:

Q dub-bul-ewe E R T
Y U I O
pasdf
G H J
K L Z
X C V
B N M
....

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 19:17:16 -0800, (daniel
peterman) wrote:

I've had this question rattling around in my brain for a few years. Why
are the letters of our alphabet (english) in that particular
order...ABCDE etc?
Was this just some arbitrary convention given edict by some king or pope
a zillion years ago?
What got me thinking about it was I was once falsely accused of DUI and
was asked to say my ABC's. Don't sing them just recite the alphabet
which I did just fine. Now what if I had given all 26 letters but in a
jumbled up way without repeating any or I had recited a line of poetry
that had all the letters with no repeats?
It appears that one can be arrested for simply rearranging the alphabet.
What if I had asked the cop to give me Pi out to 16 decimal points?
Could I assume he was intoxicated or just wanted a Donut instead of
Pi(e).
rant mode off
Dan

Give him number four on your fingers in binary especially if he asks
you how the surf is in Nevada. If it's a women cop ask her what half
of two thirds is.

SW who doesn't really want to get into bad cop stories again even
though I have some new ones!

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 17:03:41 GMT, Lew Hartswick
wrote:




Well, if you look at the first few letters of the Greek alphabet, you

will get a

clue: ALPHA, BETA, ...

GWE


Gamma, Delta

BUT BUT It ends up Omega not Zeta. ? :-)
...lew...

Catherine was sick that day.

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 01:11:41 +0000, Doug White wrote:

Keywords:
In article d7dqf.4836$u36.3734@trndny01, wrote:
Thats easy, they put them in alphabetical order.
Regards, phredd

Actually, if you do that, you get:

Aitch
Are
Ay
Bee
Cue
Dee
Double U
Ee
Ef
El
Em
En
Ess
Ex
Eye
Gee
Jay
Kay
Oh
Pea
See
Tee
Vee
Wy
Yu
Zee

LOL!

Thanks for the day brightener! :-)

Cheers!
Rich