The Engineer's Notebook

While I don't think it would have helped save my Gotham High School math grades many years back, I think having another 6 degrees in every circle would mean more handshakes! (See what I did there?)

Do I think I know Will Smith--or at the very least, do I know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone who knows Will Smith? The skeptic in me says, "No, I do not."

I digress, sort of.

It's easy to remain skeptical of absurd claims like "I'm best friends with Will Smith," especially in the face of a deconstructive argument. Yet, when the tables are turned and an affirmative argument is presented, it's easy to be led astray.

How many times a day do you deductively evaluate something? How often do you slap on your gumshoes and take a brain walk? Since you're reading this on CR4--with an emphasis on engineering and sciences--probably more often than most people.

I present to you a reason to maintain that skepticism.

A 366° circle, upon its outset, sounds bizarre. Yet that is exactly what some radical archeologists contend is true based on Scottish engineer Alexander Thom's discovery that ancient, circular, megalithic sites in Britain and France are all based on the same unit of measure: the megalithic yard.

A megalithic yard lies at 2 feet, 8.64 inches. Thom spent the latter half of his life surveying large rock structures in the British and French countryside, but was puzzled as to how primitive people were able to build 120 ton structures-to precision, but hundreds of miles apart. The answer Thom sought laid above him the whole time.

These ancient people realized that there were two days a year where shadows from the rising sun and the setting sun aligned, and those days would be the autumnal and vernal equinox. With 366 days a year, these ancient Britons and Gauls inscribed the Earth with a circle divided into 366 parts. Monitoring the translation of the night sky within one degree of this circle provided a basis for monitoring the Earth's rotation. Swinging a pendulum 366 times between two uprights set at 1 degree apart-within the time span of 1/366^th of a day (or, 3 minutes, 56 seconds), results in a pendulum distance of 1 feet, 4.32 inches. And so readers, we have finally arrived at the distance of the megalithic yard. If we take the 180° oscillation of the pendulum, we come to the megalithic yard: 2 ft., 8.64 in. AHHHHHHH!

So far we've confirmed that the megalithic yard exists. So what is the significance? There is speculation that 366 degrees is the basis of many of our current measurement systems today.

And this is where things take a Number 23-esque turn, but with significantly less Jim Carrey. I'll warn you now, if you thought the megalithic yard was a bunch of BS, it's about to get much smellier.

Alan Butler and Christopher Knight are pseudoarchaeologists-meaning they draw less reasonable conclusions from the same scientific data as their peers, and they are often admonished for some of their proposals. They've drawn the conclusion that units such as the pint, the avoirdupois pound, and the human body temperature in Celsius are all based on some form of the number 366. The claims of 366° influence grow more flagrant, as Butler believes that ancient cities like Thebes, Babylon, and Athens were situated on intervals with 366 meridians and 183 parallels, with the Jordan River serving as Prime Meridian.

Oh, but wait, there's more.

French author Sylvain Tristan believes that it was the people of Atlantis that spread the use of the 366° circle. He argues that many prehistoric civilizations didn't have the capacity to communicate this information accurately, and that an advanced race with seafaring skills would have to be responsible for the 366 credo. He further states that Atlantis was never an island, but part of a peninsula that connected Europa to the Britons. Finally, in July 2012, Doggerland was confirmed to have stretched from Scotland to Denmark, uniting the European continent more than 8,000 years ago.

So, does this actually prove anything?

Hardly. Though fun to think about, this is speculation at its best. Clearly the only way to prove this is with a big budget Indiana Jones blockbuster.

This is just a pimple in the rash of pseudoarcheology and sensationalism that has captivated bored minds in the past decade. On par with The DaVinci Code and the Kensington Runestone, 366 degrees in a circle should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism, and a pairing of your favorite alcohol.

And, for the record, apparently I do know someone, who knows someone, who knows Will Smith. The mathematical notion of collaboration distance says 90% (with the remaining percent children) of the world's people are linked by an average of 6.6 interconnections.

Image credits, in order: Funny Junk, World Mysteries Blog, Tech Power Up, The Epoch Times, TV Tropes, Sportress of Blogitude

Resources

Wikipedia - Pseudoarcharology; 366 Geometry;

Ancient Wisdom - Prehistoric British Geodesy

World Mysteries - Atlantis, First European Empire

Robert Lomas - The Mystery of the Megalithic Yard Revealed