>
>
>
> Ah, perfect.
>
> I have a challenge for you.
>
> Using the Yanomamo system of numbers (they are a
> human tribe in South America with a complex
> language and a rudimentary math, just as you
> required) please tell me how they calculate Pi, or
> the area of a square.
>
> Thank you.
>

>
>
>

I'm relatively familiar with the Yanomamo but have
no special knowledge of their mathematic abilities.
Since their existence is so primitive with subsistence
agriculture and hunting one would expect relatively
little need for math before the advent of money which
one would presume they use on occassion to trade with
outsiders for things like axes and the like.

Despite the fact that their huts are round it's diff-
icult to imagine much need for knowing pi. But there's
always the old tried and true methods of pluggers every-
where; wing it. Simply measure a circle's diameter and
see how many times you'd have to wrap the same cord or
twine around the outside. One sevenths don't come nat-
urally to people but then Pi isn't 3 1/7 anyway so just
eyeball it.

The more advanced the technology and the more massive
the undertaking the closer the approximation will need
to be.

I didn't follow the link and they might have had a diff-
erent answer but I'm an eyeballer from way back.








edited to add- -I didn't mean to imply that the Yanamamo
didn't need to know pi or it would serve no useful purpose.
Merely that there should be no special need for it so that
each time an individual discovered it there would be a ten-
dency for the knowledge to be lost. Individuals can gener-
ally use as much information and knowledge as they possess
for even simple jobs though we tend to lose knowledge which
isn't used frequently.

If one wanted to build a dike around his hut a quick calcula-
tion could be made of how many baskets of sand is required
after seeing how far the first one went.




____________
Man fears the pyramid, time fears man.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2007 07:35PM by cladking.