WELCOME TO BOROBUDUR.TV |
Last update: |
11/14/2005 | Forum | Links | About Us | ||
 |
|||||||
| Buddhism 101 | Karmavibhanga | Jatakamala | Avadana | Lalitavistara | Gandavyuha | Bhadracari | Summit |
| Early History | Buddhist Art | Architecture | Mantrayana | Angkor | The Silk Road | Asian Art | Books |
| Candi Mendut | Candi Pawon | C. Ngawen | C. Plaosan | Prambanan | C. Kalasan | C. Banyunibo | Candi Sewu |
Borobudur.tv Forum The purpose of the Borobudur.tv Forum is to provide a place for others who wish to contribute comments and short articles pertaining to the study of Java's ancient Hindu-Buddhist civilization. Contributions can be sent to the Webmaster for posting on this page at the following email address: barabudur@hotmail.com. |
|
The Metrology of Borobudur -- Donald Kingsbury |
|
| I've noted your genuine
interest in real metrology which involves actually measuring things. I've been doing a lot
of metrological research myself (I'm a retired mathematician) and I noticed some things
which you wouldn't have been aware of but which confirms from a very different angle some
of your conclusions. For instance, I noticed the number 247.33 m. I have been working with pendulums to see how they fit with ancient measuring standards. This number is 1000 times the length of a one sidereal second pendulum ( one sec thru a full, not a half cycle.) Other values that I have are: 247.27mm for the pendulum that would have been used to create the Olympic foot, which would give a tala of 228.94mm 247.09mm for the pendulum that would have been used to create the English foot, which would give a tala of 228.79mm 246.62mm for the pendulum that would have been used to create the Roman foot and the Greek nautical foot which would give a tala of 228.35mm 246.24mm for the pendulum that would have been used to create the Royal Cubit of the sides of the Great Pyramid, which would give a tala of 228.00mm These values cover the extremes that I have run into. This pendulum length, of course, varies with latitude, altitude, and swing angle. Your "tala" of 229 mm fits the system I seem to have decoded extremely well, much better that the cubit of 435.45mm which seems suspect to me. It is about 8 or 9 millimeters shorter than the Roman cubit, which is as close as I seem to be able to come to it. Your "tala" is the 27th part of a five sidereal second pendulum. You'll note that 4 times 27 = 108, which is indeed one of the popular numbers in the sexagesimal system. To get your tala, you multiply the value of the one sidereal second pendulum by 25/27. It increases as we go north. The tala at the north pole, zero altitude, zero swing angle, would be 229.35mm, which is, of course, too large for your purposes. Just in passing 365.24/2*41.81 = 0.22895m, which I like better for your tala than 229mm By the way the nautical foot is the 20th part of a five sidereal second pendulum and so your tala is related to the nautical foot as 20/27. In passing I'll note that pendulum lengths seem to have been "stored" as weights. The one that corresponds best to your tala seems to be the talent with a mina of 3888 grains. There are samples in the British Museum. If the English grain applies we get a cubic sidereal second foot of 15,116.5 cc which gives a length of 24.7258cm which gives a tala of 22.8943cm. If you ever want to fool around with a pendulum, I made a pretty good java simulation of a pendulum which you can pick up at my website http://www.donaldkingsbury.com. |
|
copyright 2003, 2004 & 2005 borobudur.tv. All Rights Reserved. |
|
|
|
