Yorkshire shows the Egyptians how to do it! | Forum

BlueGloves Mar 16, 2004 11:19:32

Replying to FourWinds

Measure twice (and cut once) !

I remember that rocket that went to Mars or somewhere. The orbit was programmed in metres and entered into the machine's memory as yards. Or the other way round. To err is human - we must allow both the megalith builders, and the Ancient Egyptians, their errors. We were trading so there must be cultural influences - the angle of the Giza pyramid walls, from the horizontal, being close to that of Silbury Hill is curious, but. I wonder where that Mars orbiter is now.

PeteG looked at the prehistoric Orion's Belt in StarMap (?) and reckoned it was the same then. Are we agreed that these three stars were considered important because they indicated Sirius/Dog Star ?

nigelswift Mar 16, 2004 12:00:19

Replying to BlueGloves

I think the error, if such it was, didn't come from converting their scratched diagram into a larger scale - it's quite conceivable that they were capable of doing that with virtually zero error. It would have come between looking up and drawing what they saw.

You'll like this, as it's practical. Get the alignment on screen, step back (more than 20 yards ideally so it appears of the size it appears in the sky) and repeatedly try to replicate it on paper.
My score, out of 5 attempts:
Worse than both - 3.
Better than the Egyptians - 2,
Better than Yorkshire - nil.

Ah but this doesn't rule out sheer chance. And round we go again.

Steve Gray Mar 17, 2004 08:48:48

Replying to BlueGloves

"the angle of the Giza pyramid walls, from the horizontal, being close to that of Silbury Hill is curious"

I think you've got your facts wrong. The angle of Silbury hill is around 30 degrees, whereas the great pyramid is about 52 degrees.

However, I agree with your general point about allowing that the ancients may have had some inaccuracies.