3 ms·
Anyone tried to translate the example given in the TFA manuscript excerpt image? There are way too many dots in the text.
by zoomablemind 3y ago
Anyone tried to translate the example given in the TFA manuscript excerpt image?
There are way too many dots in the text.
- fhars 3y agoThe paper is linked in the article, from it: At one point he squares the distance 92 pedes, 9 untia, 0 minuta, 9 secunda. He writes this quantity as “.92909.”, and its square as “.8.6.3.2.0.8.2.2.8.1″
- zoomablemind 3y agoThanks. Well, roughly this is equivalent to 92909**2 = 8632082281 which is correct arithmetically, yet still not a clear application of dec point. Assuming 'pedes' is steps, 'untia', 'minuta', and 'secunda' are some dec divisions of a step, then the result notation has too many points to keep the meaning. Looks like more of a reading/spacing convenience for a whole number with many digits. Not much about decimal point.