[Aztlan] Crypt Proportions per John Schwaller

[Sid Hollander]

In response to  Dr. Forshaw  who spoke about the Bonampak crypt.
With all do respect to Dr. Forshaw I thought for a moment that I was in the
land of the diving Quetzals or in a class on 'misinformation'.

First  the subject line: "Crypt Proportions per John Schwaller".  That is
entirely accurate but is there a suggestion in the title to suggest that Dr.
Schwaller is remotely in accord with the Maya having knowledge of or
knowingly utilizing the value of PI? After all, he was only sharing
information written in a release.

Second.  "To be noted is the notion that the ancient Greek value for Pi,
known
to have been 22/7, provides a very practical and accurate value for the
relationship between a circle's perimeter and its diameter.  I am not
suggesting at all that the Bonampak crypt builders had Greek instructors,
just that they may have utilized a Pi relationship in their chamber."

Granted:
* Greeks knew about Pi,
* Bonampak crypt builders did not have Greek instructors
So why even mention it?

There are plenty of peoples who have drawn (and continue to draw) circular
shapes  (i.e. my grandson of 8) and yet they did/do not have the slightest
concept of pi. Nor is it a requisite to draw or build circular 'things'
Just because a Maya room or thing has a length a little over 3 times its
width is not enough to even suggest that a peoples (or my grandson) has any
knowledge of the relationship of the ratio of a circles' circumference to
its diameter.  If that was the case then measuring a room and finding its
length to be twice its breadth might suggest that the builder had complete
command of trigonometry for the sin of a 30 degree angle is also 0.5

To give the following as evidence/support:

"To add support to the idea that the Maya may have developed units for
expressing the Pi relationship, it must also be noted that they
manufactured a large number of cylindrical objects for drinking cacao,
as well as constructing cylindrical buildings, such as those at
Chichen Itza (three) and at Mayapan (two).  There is a solid
cylindrical tower at a small site near Becan (Puerto Rico?), as
reported by Dr. A. Aveni and Horst Hartung in a short article about
round buildings.  They note that it is very Caracol-like as it has (or
had) sighting tubes at mid-height."

I maintain that no matter how many times the Maya or my grandson of 8 make
or draw circular objects that it proves nothing about their knowledge or
lack of knowledge of Pi.

Furthermore the fact that a body fits nicely in a box that is as long as an
average body and as wide as an average body probably has more to do with
economics of digging a pit to bury it than the box builders knowledge of
Pi.  It just doesn't make sense to give your fiance her ring in a fountain
pen box or bury someone in a grand piano shipping crate.



-- 
Sid Hollander
Merida, Yucatan
Mexico CP 97310
52-999-941.00.21
The book of nature is written in mathematical symbols…. Galileo