Monday, August 14, 2006

Fundamentalism and bad math

Mark CC of Good Math, Bad Math just posted this:
Recently on Yahoo, some bozo posted something claiming that the bible was all correct, and that genetics would show that bats were actually birds. But that's not the real prize. The real prize of the discussion was in the ensuing thread.
A doubter posted the following question:
please explain 1 kings 7.23 and how a circle can have a circumference of 30 of a unit and a radiius of 10 of a unit and i will become a christian
23 And he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. (1 Kings 7:23, NKJV)
And the answer is one of the all-time greats of moronic innumeracy:
Very easy. You are talking about the value of Pi. That is actually 3 not 3.14....... The digits after the decimal forms a geometric series and it will converge to the value zero. So, 3.14.....=3.00=3. Nobody still calculated the precise value of Pi. In future they will and apply advenced Mathematics to prove the value of Pi=3.
Mark CC didn't add anything to that, and neither will I. Even if it's satire, it's too beautiful not to pass on. I'm not sure if it's dumber than this, but it's close.

Tags: , , , ,


2 Comments:

At 7:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

1 Kings 7:23 does appear to say that pi=3.

In the Hebrew text, the word for "circumference" is spelled with an extra letter.

Every Hebrew letter has a numeric equivalent. The numerical value of the normal Hebrew spelling for "circumference" is 106 and that of the unusual spelling in 1 Kings 7:23 is 111.

This "misspelling" gives a very good approximation for pi: 3 x 111 / 106 = 3.14150943..., an error of less than .0003 percent.

Perhaps you should rename your blog "The Useful Idiot."

 
At 9:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

好秘书 中国呼吸网 肿瘤网 中国皮肤网 癌症康复网 工作总结 个人工作总结 班主任工作总结 年终工作总结 工作报告 政府报告 述职报告 述廉报告 考察报告 自查报告 情况报告 调研报告 调查报告 申请报告 辞职报告 实习报告 评估报告 工作汇报 思想汇报 汇报材料 情况通报 情况汇报 心得体会 学习心得 工作心得 培训心得 读后感 演讲稿 竞聘演讲 就职演讲 比赛演讲 征文演讲 节日演讲 演讲技巧 工作意见 活动策划 工作方案 整改方案 实施方案 企划文案 销售方案 培训方案 应急预案 规章制度 法律法规 事迹材料 先进事迹 个人事迹 申报材料 学习材料 考察材料 经验材料 交流材料 自我鉴定 模板范例 技巧经验 工作计划 民主生活会 入党志愿书 入党申请书 入团申请书 转正申请书 通知 毕业论文 合同

 

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home


Technorati Profile