DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0097
THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS. 87
determination from the pole-star method would
have set them 1 mile 1,512 yards south of the true
latitude. Whether they would thus have been led
to detect the effect of atmospheric refraction on
celestial bodies high above the horizon may be
open to question. But certainly they would have
recognised the action of some cause or other,
rendering one or other method, or both methods,
unsatisfactory. If so, and we can scarcely doubt
that this would actually happen (for certainly they
would recognise the theoretical justice of both
methods, and we can hardly imagine that having
two available methods, they would limit their
operations to one method only), they would
scarcely see any better way of proceeding than to
take a position intermediate between the two
which they had thus obtained. Such a position
would lie almost exactly 1,072 yards south of true
latitude 30o north.
Whether the architects of the pyramid of
Cheops really proceeded in this way or not, it is
certain that they obtained a result corresponding
so well with this that if we assume they really did
intend to set the base of the pyramid in lati-
tude 30o, we find it difficult to persuade ourselves
that they did not follow some such course as I
have just indicated—the coincidence is so close
determination from the pole-star method would
have set them 1 mile 1,512 yards south of the true
latitude. Whether they would thus have been led
to detect the effect of atmospheric refraction on
celestial bodies high above the horizon may be
open to question. But certainly they would have
recognised the action of some cause or other,
rendering one or other method, or both methods,
unsatisfactory. If so, and we can scarcely doubt
that this would actually happen (for certainly they
would recognise the theoretical justice of both
methods, and we can hardly imagine that having
two available methods, they would limit their
operations to one method only), they would
scarcely see any better way of proceeding than to
take a position intermediate between the two
which they had thus obtained. Such a position
would lie almost exactly 1,072 yards south of true
latitude 30o north.
Whether the architects of the pyramid of
Cheops really proceeded in this way or not, it is
certain that they obtained a result corresponding
so well with this that if we assume they really did
intend to set the base of the pyramid in lati-
tude 30o, we find it difficult to persuade ourselves
that they did not follow some such course as I
have just indicated—the coincidence is so close