Saturday, August 6, 2011

Historical Values for the Tropical Year Converted to Alternating Series

If one converts the historical values for the tropical year into alternating unit fractions in which the numbers are multiples of each other it appears that Tycho Brahe was the first to get 365 + 1/4 - 1/128 days.

Click to enlarge

Brahe's value for the tropical year, 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds, can be found in Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmatum, Pt I (1602).

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