The Foot is 1,000th of a Second
July 20 2003 at 10:22 AM |
Tony
Bennett
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I refer to the messages by Eddie and
BWMA on the 'Untitled' thread, dated 19 July 2003, about the
foot.
Eddie claims that the kilometre/metre is the only measurement
based on a natural unit, viz, one-quarter of the earth's
circumference.
BWMA is unsure of the orgin of the foot, but says it
may be related to how the eye sees certain things.
There is very
strong evidence that the ancients calculated the foot at precisely one
1,000th of one second of a degree of arc. Or to put it another way, the
inch at one 12,000th of one second.
Thus one second of arc, around
the earth's circumference, is 1,000 feet.
One minute is 60 times
greater, viz. 60,000 feet.
One degree of arc is 60 times greater
than that, viz. 360,000 feet.
And multiplied by 360 degrees, this
comes to 129,600,000 feet - very close to the true circumference of the
earth.
However, one gets even closer if one multiplies the 360,000
feet of one degree by the number of days in a year, say 365.24. Then the
number of feet making up the earth's circumference comes out at around
131,486,400 - and here one is getting remarkably close to the true
circumference of the earth.
131,486,400 feet works out at 24,903
miles (equivalent to 40,077 kilometres).
There's plenty of evidence
that the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians and Babylonians were masters of
astronomical and trigonemetrical sciences. They used measures of inches,
feet and cubits, sometimes referred to as 'sacred' measures. The Cheops
Pyramid is a classic example of a structure built using these 'sacred'
dimensional units.
Viewed like this, the metric system may be seen
not, as Eddie sees it, as an attempt to 'connect' us to a natural unit,
but rather an attempt to *disconnect* us from the true origins of many of
our units of dimension and
distance. |
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