Research Catalog

Title

The shape of the Great Pyramid / Roger Herz-Fischler.

Author

Herz-Fischler, Roger, 1940-

Publication

Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 293 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Starting in the late eighteenth century, eleven main theories were proposed to explain the shape of the Great Pyramid. Even though some of these theories are well-known, there has never been a detailed examination of their origins and dissemination. More than twenty years of research using original and difficult-to-obtain source material has allowed Roger Herz-Fischler to piece together the intriguing story of these theories. Archaeological evidence and ancient Egyptian mathematical texts are discussed in order to place the theories in their proper historical context. The theories themselves are examined, not as abstract mathematical discourses, but as writings by individual authors, both well-known and obscure, who were influenced by the intellectual and social climate of their time." "Among the topics discussed are the close links of some of the pyramid theories with other theories, such as the theory of evolution, as well as the relationship between the pyramid theories and the struggle against the introduction of the metric system. Of special note is the chapter examining how some theories spread whereas others were rejected." "This book has been written to be accessible to a wide audience, yet five appendixes, detailed endnotes and an exhaustive bibliography provide specialists with the references expected in a scholarly work."--BOOK JACKET.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Great Pyramid (Egypt) > Miscellanea
• Weights and measures > Egypt > Miscellanea
• Poids et mesures > Égypte > Miscellanees
• Grande Pyramide (Égypte) > Miscellanees

Genre/Form

Trivia and miscellanea

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-293) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Historical and Architectural Context -- External Dimensions and Construction -- Surveyed Dimensions -- Angle of Inclination of the Faces -- Egyptian Units of Measurement -- Building and Measuring Techniques -- Historiography -- Early Writings on the Dimensions -- Modern Historiographers -- One Pyramid, Many Theories -- A Summary of the Theories -- Terminology, Notation, Observed Dimensions -- Definitions of the Symbols--Observed Values -- A Comparison of the Theories -- Seked Theory -- The Mathematical Description of the Theory -- Seked Problems in the Rhind Papyrus -- Archaeological Evidence -- Early Interpretations of the Rhind Papyrus -- Petrie -- Borchardt -- Philosophical and Practical Considerations -- Arris = Side -- The Mathematical Description of the Theory -- Herodotus (vth century) -- Greaves (1641) -- Paucton (1781) -- Jomard (1809) -- Agnew (1838) -- Fergusson (1849) -- Beckett (1876) -- Howard, Wells (1912) -- Side:Apothem = 5:4 -- The Mathematical Description of the Theory -- Plutarch's Isis and Osiris -- Jomard (1809) -- Perring (1842) -- Ramee (1860) -- Side:Height = 8:5 -- The Mathematical Description of the Theory -- Jomard (1809) -- Agnew (1838) -- Perring (1840?) -- Rober (1855) -- Ramee (1860) -- Viollet-le-Duc (1863) -- Garbett, (1866) -- A.X., (1866) -- Brunes (1967) -- Pi-theory -- The Mathematical Description of the Theory -- Egyptian Circle Calculations -- Agnew (1838) -- Vyse (1840) -- Chantrell (1847) -- Taylor (1859) -- Herschel (1860) -- Smyth (1864) -- Petrie (1874).

ISBN

0889203245 (pbk.) :

LCCN

cn^99930688^

OCLC

• 41026777
• SCSB-11609552

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library