RUS  ENG
Full version
SEMINARS

Seminar on the History of Mathematics
April 6, 2023 18:00, St. Peterburg, online


Inductive metrology and Parthenon proportions. In connection with the problem of the flight, the talk is postponed to another day. The date will be announced.

A. I. Schetnikov

Abstract: Inductive metrology is a method proposed by William Petrie in 1877 to restore ancient measures of length through the analysis of measurements of architectural monuments, in compliance with the methodological principles of the natural sciences. Analyzing the results of measurements of the Parthenon stylobate using the Euclid algorithm, we come to the conclusion that this stylobate was marked with a foot 0.286 m long. A foot of the same length is extracted from the measurements of the Athenian Hephaestion, built at the same time as the Parthenon, in the Athenian Agora. However, the application of this method to other Doric temples of Attica from the time of Pericles gives for each of these temples its own foot length, different from all others. This result allows us to conclude that the Greeks in Athens at that time did not have “standard” attic foot, but for each specific building or group of buildings they used a specific measure with its copies.
*) The entrance is the same. When entering Zoom, specify your name and surname


© Steklov Math. Inst. of RAS, 2024