Egyptian Dreams

Ivanhoe · Guest

Hello all,

Quick questions here. We were lecturing over the Giza pyramids in world civs this morning and the prof. mentioned that a mathmetician went mad studying the pyramids for 25 years. He is the one who discovered that Pie (3.14 not Apple Pie) was used in the construction. He didn't recall the name of the man and I am curious. I used to know his name as I was an Egyptian fanatic during my teenage years. I think Leonard Nemoy mentioned this in his "In Search Of" episode on the pyramids.

thanks in advance!

kmt_sesh · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:28 am Post subject:

There've been so many men who've carefully measured the Great Pyramid over the years. Flinders Petrie was one of the first to do it right, but by nature he was a perfectionist. Petrie went to Egypt in the first place to try to establish the validity of the theories of one Charles Piazzi Smythe, who had all sorts of wild notions and believed this pyramid was a scale model of the Earth's circumference. In the end Petrie proved Smythe dead wrong but went on to become one of the greatest Egyptologists in history.

I don't know myself of anyone going mad studying the mathematics of the Great Pyramid, but Sir Isaac Newton was another person intrigued by this edifice. He as well believed that a lot of the Earth's secrets were hidden in the measurements of the Great Pyramid (as did many people of his time), and I believe he did establish that Pi was involved in these measurements, but I think he survived the experience mentally intact.

Sorry I can't be of much more help. I don't know much about the math whizzes who have studied the Great Pyramid.
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isisinacrisis · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:38 am Post subject:

Isaac Newton was interested in the Pyramids? And he thought pi was involved? Whoa. I saw that written elsewhere and thought it was something made up by pyramidiots to add an Egyptian slant to everything which didn't have one before. But then I remembered that Newton was also an alchemist who dabbled in the occult as well as a renowned scientist. but I never knew that he was into ancient Egypt too...
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anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

Apparently John Taylor was the one who discovered that if one divides the perimeter of the Pyramid by its height, one obtains a close approximation to 2pi. He came up with this in the 1850s.

see: http://www.math.washington.edu/~greenber/PiPyr.html

Some sites claim that Taylor was an amateur astronomer and mathematician.

I did find one source that explained that Taylor was a British amateur mathematician and astronomer who was editor of The London Observer.

There's a rather big difference between being a mathematician and being an amateur mathematician.

And not just because I'm a snobbish real mathematician myself Laughing

I have no idea if he really went mad or not.
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kmt_sesh · Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject:

anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

kmt_sesh · Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:27 am Post subject:

Ivanhoe · Guest

Thank you all for your time! If anyone has a copy of the "In Search Of" episode, I believe this does tell the answer. However, this has been so long and I have read so many books and seen so many documentaries that my memory is quite mixed up in this issue.

Thanks again!

kmt_sesh · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:08 am Post subject: