Rob Seaman scripsit: > This sounds like either an urban legend or some isolated...how do you > say "nut job" in Swedish?
Well, it's neither. The nut-job in question was King Charles XII (1682-1718), and he scribbled down his idea for using base-8 numeration in a meeting with Emanuel Swedenborg in 1716. At the time, Swedenborg was just beginning his successful career as a mining engineer -- it was not until 1744 that he became a theologian -- and was trying (unsuccessfully) to persuade the King to build an astronomical observatory (one of Swedenborg's other interests) in the north. Swedenborg reported that the King thought base 8 more suitable for war purposes (he was a most martial monarch) because the packing boxes used in the Swedish Army for materiel were cubical. -- All Gaul is divided into three parts: the part John Cowan that cooks with lard and goose fat, the part http://ccil.org/~cowan that cooks with olive oil, and the part that [EMAIL PROTECTED] cooks with butter. --David Chessler _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
