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Re: Slocum's lunars
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2003 Dec 14, 21:56 +0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2003 Dec 14, 21:56 +0000
Jan Kalivoda said- >George, sorry, but I cannot understand you: > >> In those days, tables for printing were set by hand, and there was much >> scope for things to go wrong. I have read of other cases of printed errors, >> and we can't reject the possibility of a whole column of them. > >If I can imagine the process of preparing the book by hand, the digits of >table values were set one by one. Accordingly, I can understand a casual >printing error in one digit of one logarithm, but what mental process could >cause the error in a whole vertical column, while adjacent columns should be >correct? Response from George. Perhaps it's unlikely, as Jan says. It might be a misunderstanding, by the printer, of the columns in the manuscript sheet that had been given to him. But now that Jan raises the question, I am less confident about it. >And two following paragraphs seem to be contradictory: > > >> Nor can we reject the possibility that Slocum did something wrong, got a >> silly answer, and then found a way to "fiddle" things to get a better one >> by altering a set of numbers in a table. But Slocum would be asking for >> trouble in doing that, because it would be so easy to check it >> retrospectively. Publishing it in a book, which would be widely read by his >> seagoing contemporaries, he was surely aware that the first question >> another mariner would ask him would be "What was the table that was wrong, >> and what were those errors?", so that they could correct their own copies. > >Therefore it would have been dangerous for Slocum to lay false claim for >correcting a table value? > > >> I agree with Herbert that his claim to have detected, and then corrected, >> an error in a table was a remarkable feat: so remarkable as to make it hard >> to accept. > >Or not? Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. There are two arguments being presented here, that pull in contrary directions. I am unable to choose between them with any confidence. It's an interesting puzzle. George. ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================