No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Why Do Archimedes and Eddington Both Get 1079 for the Total Number of Particles in the Universe?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 February 2009
Extract
There have been two attempts in the history of human speculation to estimate the number of particles in the universe. The first was that of Archimedes of Syracuse about 216 B. C., and the second that of Sir Arthur Eddington nearly two thousand years later. What is surprising is that they both arrive at the same number. This is the number obtained by multiplying ten by itself seventy-nine times.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1940
References
page 269 note 1 This feeling can be recaptured with a little practice.
page 269 note 2 Cf. Heath, Sir Thomas, Aristarchus of Samos, p. 221 (1913).Google Scholar
page 271 note 1 Note absence of idea of infinity as a number.
page 271 note 2 Sir Thomas Heath, Archimedes.
page 274 note 1 Nowadays we should use trigonometry and say distance of sun divided by distance of moon is secant 87° or 19.
page 277 note 1 The inch is the mean measure of the thumbs of three Scotsmen in the reign of King David (c. 1150).
page 279 note 1 The Mathematical Theory of Relativity, p. 154 (1924).
page 280 note 1 The Philosophy of Physical Science, p. 109 (1939).
page 282 note 1 See The Philosophy of Physical Science, p. 170.