Hermione wrote: "Have you come across this article?"


I first read it a while ago. I note that the author supports my statement regarding the 28 finger cubit rod, but then goes on to make an incorrect assumption - an assumption upon which the rest of his article is then based. First, let me quote him directly:


"How could the Egyptians have discovered the 3 1/7 value for pi 23 centuries before Archimedes? A very plausible explanation would be that they could have discovered a 3 1/7 circumference to diameter ratio by simply measuring round objects. As already noted, the Egyptian royal cubit was divided into 7 handbreadths. A round object 1 cubit (7 handbreadths) in diameter would have a measured circumference of 31/7 cubits (22 handbreadths).
As reasonable as this might seem, however, there is absolutely no evidence that the Egyptians ever used these measurements to establish a circumference to diameter ratio. Had they done so, we would expect to find evidence of pi = 3 1/7."

It is this last sentence which is problematic. Yes, we of today might expect the 22/7ths aspect of the correlation to have been preeminent, but is it therefore correct to assume that they would have as well? I think not. As I said earlier, I believe it is the 11 to 14 relationship that concerned them here.

The fact that they then derived the area of a circle via the 8/9ths correlation makes perfect sense from the point of view of a pragmatic (and mnemonic) convenience AND from the point of view that it is directly and immediately connected to a simple squaring of the circle. I believe it a worthwhile exercise to entertain the possibility that this latter connection (i.e., squaring of the circle) was an overall aesthetic concern of the high culture of the time. It is from such a vantage that I believe one can begin to drop many of the prejudices of modern understandings and see things in the more diagrammatic way that the higher-order scribe, or architect, would have. Think diagrammatically, graphically.

Be open minded, Hermione! Fear not, this slightly different way of looking at things won't bite.

Best,

Lee Cooper