Re: what is etymology? (linguistics and biology)


Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
Des Small wrote:

"Always and exclusively"? That's trenchantly at odds with the
observable universe, even by your redoubtable standards! What's _The
Crest of the Peacock: The Non-European Roots of Mathematics_, George
Gheverghese Joseph (Princeton University Press); chopped liver?

"""
From the Ishango Bone of central Africa and the Inca quipu of South
America to the dawn of modern mathematics, The Crest of the Peacock
makes it clear that human beings everywhere have been capable of
advanced and innovative mathematical thinking. George Gheverghese
Joseph takes us on a breathtaking multicultural tour of the roots and
shoots of non-European mathematics. He shows us the deep influence the
Egyptians and Babylonians had on the Greeks; the Arabs' major creative
contributions; and the astounding range of successes of the great
civilizations of India and China.
"""

Des
's mathematics is cutting edge, for the early C19.

I had a look at the book by George Gheverghese Joseph
a couple of minutes ago, a very fine book, thank you for
the hint.

The book was published in 1991, before my time. GGJ
proposes Heron's method for the way how the fabulous
Babylonian value for the square root of 2 was found. Also
Anglin gives that method (in a book I have at home). So
I must say the same again: Heron's method is demanding
and sophisticated. The Babylonians used very simple yet
clever additive number patterns, and so did the Egyptians.
Here the number column for the approximative calculation
of the square root of 2, just plain simple natural numbers,
followed by number sequences for getting better values
of pi starting from poor ones:

www.seshat.ch/home/babylon.htm

GGJ says that the Babylonians knew the so-called theorem
of Pythagoras long before the time of Pythagoras, which was
bluntly denied in the math-history forum in 1991. Nice of GGJ
to having spoken up for me. He must have seen the value of
my number columns that make difficult calculations quite
simple and easy. FG

My reply from yesterday did not arrive, so I try again.
George Gheverghese Joseph showed up in the math-
history-list in the early summer of 1997, where I published
my number columns for approximating the square roots of
2 and 3 and 5, and the cube root of 2. I shook them up by
showing them that the Egyptians and Babylonians did not
only know the so-called theorem of Pythagoras more than
two millennia earlier, the Egyptians in the time around
2450 BC also had a systeamtic method for calculating
the circle. I got attacked for all I said, GGJ was one of the
few who spoke up in my favor. I am happy to see that he
published a book. Will try to get it. What does he say
about the so-called theorem of Pythagoras? That's the
crucial question. As for my "redoubtable standards":
I am always explaining how I get my results, I make
all of my work transparent, whereas academe thunders
down from Mount Olympus as if they were Zeus themselves.
No no no, before the Greeks nobody was able of a theoretical
insight, the Babylonians got their value for the square root
of 2 just by trying, it was so, we don't have to show you how
it was be done, we are just in the Know.

Franz Gnaedinger

PS: They got a horrible new interface for the math-history-list,
hard to navigate, hope Google will never do such a thing to
the Usenet

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian (year seven)
    ... square root of 2, and the longer side by the ... Now let us imagine the circle in the finer grid ... -> Experimental approach to early mathematics ... The ancient tin mines were ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: sci.lang is not meant for religious propaganda
    ... For example the square root of 2. ... mathematics you can find sophisticated methods for the ... three posts in the thread "Magdalenian experiment ... generation of Paleo-linguists will follow me or not. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: The true origin of Magdalenian
    ... necessary relationship to anything the Babylonians studied. ... My primary teacher said mathematics is special ... understand the origins of a thing to make productive use of it. ... I neither ascribe nor not-ascribe anything to the ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Solving k^m = q mod N
    ... except you explicitly lay out the PRNG algorithm. ... is possible to compute any hexadecimal digit in the binary expansion ... quickly (may give a very fast square root algorithm in fact). ... Mathematics is bigger than that. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Magdalenian (year seven)
    ... Being a fan of experimental archaeology I did and ... I tried to find a simple algorithm for approximating ... square root of two, they did, and it's done, and that's the end of it. ... either it occurred within early mathematics or it didn't. ...
    (sci.lang)