Mathematical Problem
The biblical description that the bowl has a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30 cubits suggest that the Bible defines pi as equal to 3, rather than the correct value of approximately 3.14159. Rabbi Nehemiah argues that the Bible is not claiming that pi equals 3. Instead, Nehemiah argues that the diameter was measure to the outside, while the circumference was measure along the inside. After accounting for the width of the brim, this results in the correct value of pi.
Read more about this topic: Molten Sea
Famous quotes containing the words mathematical and/or problem:
“As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.”
—Blaise Pascal (16231662)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from itto the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)