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Re: value of pi and 22/7

Path csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail
From Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Subject Re: value of pi and 22/7
Date Sun, 19 Jun 2016 23:19:41 -0600
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On Sun, Jun 19, 2016 at 4:25 PM, Gregory Ewing
<greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Ian Kelly wrote:
>>
>>  Remember, the cubit was based on the length of the
>> forearm, so it's not like it was a terribly precise measurement to
>> begin with;
>
>
> Let's not sell them short. Just because it was based on a forearm
> doesn't mean they didn't have a precise standard for it, any more
> than people who measure things in "feet" do it by plonking down
> their own foot.
>
> No doubt it wasn't as precise as what we have nowadays, but
> it was probably a lot better than human body part variations.

Sure, but I think you've missed my central point, which is not that
they wouldn't have made reasonably precise measurements in
construction, but only that the storytellers would have rounded things
off for their audience.

We still do the same thing today. A house appraisal will report its
footprint to the nearest square foot, but most people when talking
about it casually aren't going to say "my house is 1936 square feet".
More likely they'll just say "about 1900 square feet", since past the
first couple of digits nobody really cares.

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Thread

Re: value of pi and 22/7 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <lawrencedo99@gmail.com> - 2016-06-17 16:12 -0700
  Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-06-17 17:49 -0600
    Re: value of pi and 22/7 Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-06-18 11:19 +1000
      Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2016-06-17 19:27 -0700
      Re: value of pi and 22/7 Tim Harig <timharig@eternal-september.org> - 2016-06-18 05:47 +0000
        Re: value of pi and 22/7 boB Stepp <robertvstepp@gmail.com> - 2016-06-18 10:22 -0500
      Re: value of pi and 22/7 Christian Gollwitzer <auriocus@gmx.de> - 2016-06-18 09:56 +0200
  Re: value of pi and 22/7 Random832 <random832@fastmail.com> - 2016-06-17 23:48 -0400
    Re: value of pi and 22/7 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <lawrencedo99@gmail.com> - 2016-06-17 21:30 -0700
      Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-06-17 23:18 -0600
        Re: value of pi and 22/7 Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2016-06-20 10:25 +1200
          Re: value of pi and 22/7 Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2016-06-20 12:07 +1000
            Re: value of pi and 22/7 Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> - 2016-06-20 18:06 +0000
          Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-06-19 23:19 -0600
            Re: value of pi and 22/7 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2016-06-20 16:22 +1000
              Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-06-20 10:01 -0600
                Re: value of pi and 22/7 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2016-06-21 18:38 +1000
              Re: value of pi and 22/7 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2016-06-20 10:09 -0600
          Re: value of pi and 22/7 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <lawrencedo99@gmail.com> - 2016-06-19 22:51 -0700
            Re: value of pi and 22/7 Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-06-20 10:32 +0300
              Re: value of pi and 22/7 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <lawrencedo99@gmail.com> - 2016-06-20 01:01 -0700
                Re: value of pi and 22/7 Wildman <best_lay@yahoo.com> - 2016-06-20 17:24 -0500
                Re: value of pi and 22/7 Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-06-21 01:47 +0300
                Re: value of pi and 22/7 Lawrence D’Oliveiro <lawrencedo99@gmail.com> - 2016-06-22 14:20 -0700
      Re: value of pi and 22/7 Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2016-06-20 10:14 +1200
        Re: value of pi and 22/7 Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> - 2016-06-20 17:53 +0000
        Re: value of pi and 22/7 Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2016-06-20 21:52 +0300
          Re: value of pi and 22/7 Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2016-06-22 00:52 +1200
  Re: value of pi and 22/7 Pete Forman <petef4+usenet@gmail.com> - 2016-06-18 13:05 +0100
  Re: value of pi and 22/7 Johannes Bauer <dfnsonfsduifb@gmx.de> - 2016-06-18 18:09 +0200

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