From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Mon Dec 30 2002 - 08:00:26 MST
[Spike]
> Lee, when you destroyed my illusions about our saviour
> Sir Isaac Newton having been born on 25 December I was
> completely shattered.
[yep! it's a pleasure to fwd these two msg ...
s.]
I have wondered about that question also, since I have seen both dates used.
I think that December 25 should be used, for two reasons.
The first reason is that dates themselves are somewhat arbitrary. It can be
argued on philosophical grounds that almost (or all?) things are arbitrary,
so that's an empty statement. But dates and times in particular have a long
history of changing amongst cultures and times. So I would say that since
England used Dec 25 when he was born, that was his birthday.
The second reason I like Dec 25 is more technical. Since it was realized
that the calendar was, I believe, 11 days off eventually, adjustments were
needed. But why should we adjust that date, or ones near it, alone? When
do we start the adjustments? Do dates in 1100 AD need it? How about 100
AD, should they be fixed by (about) a day? That is too cumbersome to deal
with. Let us just use the date that was used locally, and state which
calendar system was used.
Best regards from Ohio,
Tony
Tony Maric
Teaching and Learning Center
Franklin University
614-341-6201
1-877-341-6300 x6201 toll free
http://www.franklin.edu/students/tlc
I once made the embarrassing mistake of saying in public that Galileo's
death and Newton's birth were easy for New Zealanders to remember because
both events happened in 1642, the year that Abel Tasman was the first
European to find NZ. But G's death and N's birth were of course over 365
days apart! What is true is that T got here in the year of G's death, and
N was born while he was still sailing along the NZ coast.
John Harper, School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences,
Victoria University, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand
e-mail john.harper@vuw.ac.nz phone (+64)(4)463 5341 fax (+64)(4)463 5045
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