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Word Count
May. 12th, 2004 08:37 amI suppose this is distorted somewhat by the fact that I'm a relative newbie. After all, I only used the word "iduve" in one post.
May. 12th, 2004
I suppose this is distorted somewhat by the fact that I'm a relative newbie. After all, I only used the word "iduve" in one post.
Looking Things Up
May. 12th, 2004 10:12 amYesterday, while reading Ornament of the World, I took it into my head to see what the Britannica had to say about El Cid. I began by looking up "Diaz, Rodrigo". There was no entry. I tried "Rodrigo Diaz", with the same result. Finally, I looked under "Cid, El", and there the entry was.
This morning, still reading the same book, I decided to check something about the mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, AKA Fibonacci. Mindful of the previous day's experience, I checked "Fibonacci" first. The entry read, "See Leonardo Pisano".
Emerson said that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. He never said anything about a foolish inconsistency.
Fibonacci is one of my favorite neglected historical figures. Forget the Fibonacci numbers; they're a rather minor bit of mathematics. But his role in persuading the merchants of Europe to use Hindu-Arabic numerals (as opposed to the abacus) for computations was critical. Once that change was made, modern bookkeeping became a possibility, which in turn had a huge impact on economic and governmental structures. It could be argued that the absolute monarchies of the Renaissance and later, and the powerful middle class that eventually brought them down, were made possible by that development; and it was Fibonacci who laid the groundwork for it. Rabbits, tcha!
This morning, still reading the same book, I decided to check something about the mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, AKA Fibonacci. Mindful of the previous day's experience, I checked "Fibonacci" first. The entry read, "See Leonardo Pisano".
Emerson said that a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. He never said anything about a foolish inconsistency.
Fibonacci is one of my favorite neglected historical figures. Forget the Fibonacci numbers; they're a rather minor bit of mathematics. But his role in persuading the merchants of Europe to use Hindu-Arabic numerals (as opposed to the abacus) for computations was critical. Once that change was made, modern bookkeeping became a possibility, which in turn had a huge impact on economic and governmental structures. It could be argued that the absolute monarchies of the Renaissance and later, and the powerful middle class that eventually brought them down, were made possible by that development; and it was Fibonacci who laid the groundwork for it. Rabbits, tcha!
