Archimedes Number - Erratum

alt.astronomy:


The following message contained an error when it was posted.

The number 4 should have been 8 in every instance.

The text was:
"Archimedes said that the largest number was 4x10,000^3. Why the number 4?"
"What is a Miriad cubed times 4, cubed? Or, times 4, again, cubed?"

I have taken the liberty to place the corrections in the copy of the
original text quoted below:

I have also added the sentences, "Then multiply that by 8 to get two
layers of four adjacent cubes. The significance is that three planes
intersect at the center point of the cubes, and that establishes the
coordinate system that was celebrated in the diagram drawn on the altar
block of the Parthenon that was designed using Pythagoras's system of
geometry."

Ralph Hertle



Subject: Jupiter Moon Count Now At 61 [ Archimedes number]
From: Ralph Hertle
mailto:ralph.hertle_at_verizon.net?Subject=%20 Jupiter%20Moon%20Count%20Now%20At%2061%20%20%5B%20 Archemedes%20number%20%5D

Date of original post: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 04:46:23 GMT

Paul:

When asked what was the largest number that he could say, Archimedes
said that the largest number was 8x10,000^3. Why the number 8? That was
to honor the creator of the number, Pythagoras, the creator of the
concept of the number who also invented the XYZ planar coordinate
measuring system. That system today is called the Cartesian Coordinate
System, however, his contemporary historians had probably got it wrong,
and they never understood the workings of the Pythagorean geometrical
system. As a result Des Cartes got the credit, and the marvelous
discovery of Pythagoras never became known to the modern world. Not to
mention that most of the great scientific and intellectual discoveries
of the Ancient Greeks were lost on the Romans who either destroyed the
ideas and their books or never conveyed them.

Pythagoras would have created a straight line number out of the three
component cube number, and his number would have been, (by implication
from Archimedes' knowledge of the psyche of Pythagoras and by
implication from Pythagoras' system) 10,000^3 x 10,000^3 x 10,000^3.
That is, if I have the arithmetic right, 10,000^11. Then multiply that
by 8 to get two layers of four adjacent cubes. The significance of that
is that three planes intersect at the center point of the cubes. That
establishes the coordinate system that was celebrated in the diagram
drawn on the altar block of the Parthenon that was designed using
Pythagoras's system of geometry.

Later, Archimedes said, "....and that is quite a sufficient number."

Note that Archimedes would have had available to him the original or
valid copies of the works of Pythagoras. What is a Miriad cubed times 8,
cubed? Or, times 8, again, cubed? That is the carry home thought from a
lecture by Archimedes. Something for the student to spend half of the
morning after developing, and writing down the number in Ancient Greek
numerical notation.

Ralph Hertle

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