tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post142046276531653662..comments2024-03-29T15:34:55.287+11:00Comments on loon pond: In which the pond retreats to the safety of dashing Donner's Judeo-Christian musings ...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-47411927793926672322017-04-05T15:37:41.091+10:002017-04-05T15:37:41.091+10:00But but butt, DW, your reference sadly omits any m...But but butt, DW, your reference sadly omits any mention of Omar Khayyam (18 May 1048 – 4 December 1131) of whom Wikipedia says:<br /><br /><i>Born in Nishapur, in northeastern Iran, at a young age he moved to Samarkand and obtained his education there. Afterwards he moved to Bukhara and became established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the Islamic Golden Age. He wrote one of the most important treatises on algebra written before modern times, the Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra (1070) which includes a geometric method for solving cubic equations by intersecting a hyperbola with a circle.[3] He contributed to a calendar reform.</i><br /><br />But it doesn't mention that the "calendar reform" undertaken by the Tentmaker was actually motivated by the fact that because of 'julian' calendar drift, Muslims were all praying on the wrong days. So it goes.<br /><br />And of course Khayyam was a little later than the glory days of The House of Wisdom - round about the time of the first Seljuk Turk conquest of Baghdad (1055), in fact - that in turn being a little later than the Seljuk Turk conquest of Persia (aka Iran) in 1044. But Bertrand Russell once said of Khayyam that " Omar Khayyam was the only man known to [Russell] who was both a poet and a mathematician.<br /><br />Here is some of his immortal wisdom, with or without a house:<br /><br /><b>Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise<br />To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;<br />One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;<br />The Flower that once has blown forever dies.<br /><br />Myself when young did eagerly frequent<br />Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument<br />About it and about; but evermore<br />Came out by the same Door as in I went.<br /><br />With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,<br />And with my own hand labour'd it to grow:<br />And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd --<br />"I came like Water and like Wind I go."</b>GrueBleennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1462488453822156883.post-57185724577209889982017-04-05T14:18:54.757+10:002017-04-05T14:18:54.757+10:00Hi Dorothy,
Where would dear old “Western Civilis...Hi Dorothy,<br /><br />Where would dear old “Western Civilisation” be were it not for the happy confluence of events that led to the Abbasid dynasty building it’s capital in what would become Baghdad in the 8th Century?<br /><br />The ‘Translation Movement’ that grew from the patronage of the Caliphs, along with the new cheaper paper technology imported from China ensured the survival of many ancient Greek and Roman texts that were lost in Western Europe.<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom<br /><br />Another serendipitous import was the introduction of the decimal Hindu-Arabic numerals developed by mathematicians in the Indian subcontinent around AD 700. Building on the translated works of earlier Greek Mathematics (Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius) but using this new and easier notation, huge progress was made with decimal fractions. geometry and trigonometry. The creation of algebra (meaning completion or “reunion of parts” in Arabic) led to ways to solve polynomial equations.<br /><br />Fortunate for “Western Civilisation” that it was able to tap into all this accumulated knowledge in the later part of the medieval ages in what would be lead up to the Renaissance.<br /><br />Evidently this isn’t the sort of history, a hackneyed cultural warrior like Donnelly, wants teaching to susceptible young minds.<br /><br />DiddyWrote<br />DiddyWrotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03363357312365445305noreply@blogger.com