Archive for 'mathematics'
Maya multiplication
I don’t know anything about this. Is it really Maya?
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Posted: November 20th, 2008 under mathematics.
Comments: none
Adding up the bones
and arms, and hearts, and hands, and arrows . . .
Geographer Barbara Williams and mathematician Maria del Carmen Jorge y Jorge have, after three decades of labor, deciphered an Aztec code used to calculate the areas of land plots.
The Aztecs needed to calculate the area of irregular shaped parcels of land for tax purposes. Their [...]
Posted: April 7th, 2008 under aztecs, history, mathematics.
Comments: none
Maya Architecture and the Golden Mean
Mathematicians define the golden section as a relation in which the smaller unit is to te larger unit as the larger is to the sum. In other words, a:b = b:(a+b). The name for this relation is phi. Its numeric value is 1.618034. Phi is an interesting number. If you add 1 to it [...]
Posted: May 20th, 2007 under architecture, copan, mathematics.
Comments: 4