> "Iain Strachan" <iain@istrachan.clara.co.uk> wrote to <vernon.jenkins@virgin.net> (29 Jun 2001 01:07:06 +0100):
>[snip]
> I will state here that when I first heard of the approximation to Pi in =
> Genesis 1:1, that I was a bit skeptical to start with. Initially, it =
> was just a formula taking the letter product divided by the word =
> product, and it gave a figure for pi/4 multiplied by an arbitrary power =
> of 10. At that point, I reckoned that it was no more than "mildly =
> interesting", as someone else put it. Then it became clear that the =
> number of letters (28) was 4 times the number of words, so the =
> correction to the formula (Num letters) * (letter product) / (Num =
> words)*(word product) led to an approximation for Pi, times an arbitrary
> power of 10. This still wasn't quite enough to convince me that this =
> was a genuine happening and not a fluke of coincidence; the formula =
> seems an arbitrary one plucked out of thin air, and difficult to justify
> unless a different verse could be made to show a similar feature with =
> exactly the same formula; which would confirm independently that the =
> formula was in some sense valid.
>
> It was when someone else plugged the numerical values of John 1:1 into =
> precisely the same formula to arrive at a similarly accurate =
> approximation for e (multiplied by a power of 10), that I was finally =
> convinced that this merited further attention. It makes coincidence an
> extremely long shot, as the formula was not tweaked or altered in any =
> way to produce the "e" result. Also validates the letter count/word =
> count correction factor. If the original formula had been applied to =
> John 1:1, there would have been a very accurate approximation to 17e/52,
> which would hardly have jumped out at anyone.
>
> [snip]
>
> Other observations I have made subsequently involve evaluating "the =
> formula" on every verse in the Torah (some 5000 verses - with a computer
> program). I can confirm that the formula effectively computes a random =
> varible. The fractional part of the base 10 part of the logarithm of =
> the function gives a uniform distribution in the range 0 to 1, as one =
> would expect. Genesis 1:1 is the verse that is closest to pi, differing
> by 10^-5. If one selects an arbitrary other constant (say the square =
> root of two), then one normally finds that the closest one is around =
> 10^-4 distant, which is in accord with what one would expect with 5000 =
> data samples. The second closest verse to pi has a difference of 10^-4;
> so Gen 1:1 is an order of magnitude closer to pi than it.
>[snip]
With Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew, I got a relative deviation (delta Pi)/Pi of
0.001 %, in agreement with Iain Strachan's result. However, with John
1:1 in Greek, the relative deviation (delta e)/e was 0.54 %, not
"similarly accurate". Could it be that I used different letter values
somewhere? (I used 1 to 9, 10 to 90, 100 to 300 for 21 Hebrew letters
alef to taw (omitting tsade, unassigned to a number), and 1 to 5, 7 to
9, 10 to 80, 100 to 800 for 24 Greek letters alpha to omega, omitting 6
(Hebrew waw) and 90 (Hebrew qof) assigned to no Greek letters).
But I have difficulties with the assignment of probabilities to these
findings. Even if 10^-4 is the expected value for the best match in 5000
Torah verses, it does not look very improbable to me if one of the
verses gets to 10^-5 of some particular value aimed at. And 0.005 seems
to be not at all remarkable. Would any one of you who are knowledgable
in probability calculations care about describing here how to find
relevant probabilities?
Peter
-- -------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Peter Ruest Biochemistry Wagerten Creation and evolution CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern Tel.: ++41 31 731 1055 Switzerland E-mail: <pruest@dplanet.ch - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In biology - there's no free lunch - and no information without an adequate source. In Christ - there is free and limitless grace - for those of a contrite heart. --------------------------------------------------------------
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