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From:
Subject: [ABOUT-WORDS] Arabic science
Date: Tue, 15 May 2007 15:49:49 EDT



Neat website.

It is kind of sad--the Muslim world had many scholars. They and the folks
from India gave us the zero.

Columbus had an instrument to find the approx. latitude--or at least stay
close to one he knew. It was a notched board about 6 inches by 1 3/4 inches.
There was a leather thong attached to it. The thong could be adjusted to a
man's arms. If he was a small man, the thong could be pulled in shorter. A
long-armed man would have the thongs pulled out of the board. He held the small
board in his outstretched hand and the other hand held the thong against his
nose as he sighted the North Star. Columbus tried to use the same sailor each
night that they could see the star.

They would take readings from the last port that they knew its lat and long.
They would note the North Star position and they would sail all day by
guesswork. Then as soon as it was dark, they would use the wooden and leather
thonged instrument to see if they were below the mark on the board or above the
mark. They zigzagged across the Atlantic that way--trying to stay on a straight
line from Portugal. If they fell below one day, they would sail northwest a
degree or so. If they were above, they would sail to the southwest a degree
or so. Records say that as they used it more and more--the sailors really got
very good at it and would only have to correct a degree each day one way or
the other. The concept came directly from the Arabs.

The compass came from China by way of the Arabs.

FRED



(mailto:) writes:

BlankI came across an interesting website of Aramco the oil company at :
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200703/

If you click on "Rediscovering Arabic Science" and scroll down about a fifth
of the way to the end, there is a short item called "Arabic Science: The
Language", which is directly relevant to our List. Izzy will find it
particularly fascinating, I think. (I don't know if we have any Arabists
among us.)

Gordon


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