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Writer's pictureM Campbell

50. The Volume of a Sphere and the Egyptian Royal Cubit

Updated: Jun 6, 2023

There are lots of interesting links between the metre, the Egyptian royal cubit and the imperial system. However, these depend on what values you give all these, as well as the values you accept as the ratios themselves. For example, the diameter of a circle being 1 metre and the circumference being 6 Egyptian royal cubits works best with a metre of 39.375 inches, or 54 digits of 0.72916666", pi as 22/7, and the Egyptian Royal cubit of 20.625". Alternatively the 20.6181818" Egyptian royal cubit corresponds to a circumference of 6 of these cubits, pi of 3.14181818, and a diameter of 1 metre of 39.375". (This conversion rate between metre and inch has never been an official one, but it fits very well, and some researchers into metrology, going back to the 19th century have used this, notably Mauss. It also yields little gems like 6.4 metres divided by 7 make one English yard.)


I also like this metre - royal cubit connection, that I first saw in another film about Ancient Egypt, the famous Revelation of the Pyramids by Patrice Pooyard, first put forward by Schwaller de Lubicz. It's: pi - Phi squared = Egyptian royal cubit in metres. And this works really well with the Fibonacci number approximations for Phi squared and pi, so ((55/21 x 6/5) - (55/21), obtaining the 20.625 inch Egyptian Royal cubit, or alternatively with (144/55 x 6/5) - (144/55), and to convert to inches, using the 39.375 rate again, 20.6181818.


On the GHMB forum, Holger Isenberg recently shared a link to a film by Fehmi Krasniqi, which looks at different interpretations of ancient Egyptian science and engineering, and mentioned that the film makes an interesting claim: the difference between the volume of a sphere and a cube gives the value of a royal cubit in metres. So the volume of a sphere with a diameter of 1 being 4/3 x π x (1/2)³ = 0.5235987756, this can be interpreted as also a length in metres, moving back down from the three dimensional to the two dimensional. There's no need to bring a cube into the equation in fact. All that you need is the volume of a sphere with a diameter of 1. Converted to inches this 0.5235987756 m gives 20.614125". Multiplied by 440 this does give a figure very close to Flinders Petrie's base side for the Great Pyramid, 9070.215, and multiplied instead by 280 for the height, it is again very close to Flinders Petrie's estimate, at 5771.955 inches. The height is even closer to Flinders Petrie's value simply by using pi: 0.5235987756 x 440 x 2/π x 39.3700787402 = 5774.2782152. This last number is very close to 10,000 / √3 = 5773.5026919.


With different values for Phi, using the volume of a sphere formula, you can arrive at the 20.625" and 20.6181818" Egyptian Royal Cubits, if you stick to a 39.375" conversion rate between inch and metre.

4/3 x 22/7 x (1/2)³ x 39.375 = 20.625 and 4/3 x 864/275 x (1/2)³ x 39.375 = 20.6181818.


Even more impressively, 0.5235987756 x 440 x 2/π = 146.66666 m, which is an important number for David Kenworthy.


So it is all the more curious that 0.5235987756 - π ≈ -2.617993978, so close to Phi squared. So that the volume of a sphere with a diameter of Phi² + π, would be 100.04182788, very close to 100.

(4/3 x π x ((Phi² + π)/2)³ ≈ 100.04182788


It's also curious that (0.5235987756 x 440 x 2/π x 39.3700787402 / (Phi x 20,000,000) = 365.242199 / 354.36708, the ratio between a solar and lunar year in days.


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8件のコメント


Larry Pahl
Larry Pahl
2023年7月06日

Melissa, I am in Panama visiting my son who runs a mission base in Panama City. We went into town to buy some aluminum trim in bulk. It comes in sections 6.4 meters long! Probably related ultimately, somewhere back down the line to Mauss and the "little gem" that "6.4 metres divided by 7 make one English yard." ???? - Larry Pahl

いいね!
Melissa Campbell
Melissa Campbell
2023年7月06日
返信先

Hi Larry,


First of all, wow, you're in Panama! And your son lives and works there! That's amazing. That's so interesting that there is an actual unit of 6.4 metres. Do you know if it has a name? It may have done once, but possibly no one would be able to tell you at the hardware shop. Well done for remembering that length! (What are the odds that someone who'd read that article would actually find themselves buying aluminium trim in Panama?? :))

Well thanks so much for sharing that. I hope you have a wonderful trip. Enjoy spending time with your son.


Melissa


p.s.

I looked up historical units of measure in Panama, but there is nothing. I wonder…


いいね!

D Kenworthy
D Kenworthy
2022年11月07日

This puts 39.375 spheres into the 20.625 royal cubit

6 spheres into pi as 22/7 and 12 into 44/7

7 spheres into 3.666 (70000 in the Giza base being 50000 digits of 0.7333in as 2 barleycorns}

27 spheres into 99/7 as 10 root 2 using 99/70.

28 spheres into 14.666


And the Giza base is 70000 spheres and is variable based on pi approximate


So rather than being the hideously complex Dash/Petrie/Cole analysis 50000 digits in the base length comes as a seismic shock to all Egyptologists, but should not be to Metrologists.


The Mile is 50000 x 1.728 = 86400 digits another seismic shock, even to metrologists.

1.728 is 12/10 x 12/10 x 12/10


we…

いいね!
D Kenworthy
D Kenworthy
2022年11月08日
返信先

Thanks David, yes it all works together. Not forgetting the metre itself, because at the end of the day what the base side of the GP measures is also 440 x 4/3 x pi x (1/2)^3 modern metres, or 220/3 x pi metres, the height being 440/3 metres.


to get this spot on multiply the height by 100/99

いいね!

D Kenworthy
D Kenworthy
2022年11月07日

It is imperative to bring a cube into the calculation

いいね!

kenworthy.david
2022年9月24日


いいね!

kenworthy.david
2022年9月24日

Hello Melissa

The simple formula for the sphere inside a one inch cube is pi/6 where pi is a variable and Giza pi is 22/7 so the volume of the sphere is 22/42.


This puts 39.375 spheres into the 20.625 royal cubit

6 spheres into pi as 22/7 and 12 into 44/7

7 spheres into 3.666 (70000 in the Giza base being 50000 digits of 0.7333in as 2 barleycorns}

27 spheres into 99/7 as 10 root 2 using 99/70.

28 spheres into 14.666


And the Giza base is 70000 spheres and is variable based on pi approximate


So rather than being the hideously complex Dash/Petrie/Cole analysis 50000 digits in the base length comes as a seismic shock to all Egyptologists,…


いいね!
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