From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10261c,68666e29d0425009 X-Google-Attributes: gid10261c,public X-Google-Thread: 11390f,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gid11390f,public X-Google-Thread: 1094ba,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gid1094ba,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,68666e29d0425009 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: fa0ae,be6b7e036aa9236c X-Google-Attributes: gidfa0ae,public From: ken@coho.halcyon.com (Ken Pizzini) Subject: Re: Results of my test: Re: Friday 13th, try it yourself Date: 1996/10/02 Message-ID: <52u94i$6q7@news1.halcyon.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 186725260 references: <52bmft$f3l@news1.halcyon.com> <52qpqt$1b3l@ilx018.iil.intel.com> organization: What, me? newsgroups: comp.lang.perl.misc,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.basic,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.fortran,comp.lang.pascal.misc,comp.lang.smalltalk Date: 1996-10-02T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article <52qpqt$1b3l@ilx018.iil.intel.com>, Uri Raz wrote: >dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) wrote: >> Which ought to have shown you that the figures are exact for every period >> of 400 years. The situation is similar to a pseudo-random number generator >> that repeats a sequence of 100 digits 0 and 1 with 49 occurrences of 0 >> and 51 of 1. When you look at it without background information it looks >> uniform, but because you know it repeats you know also that it is biased >> in favour of 1 and so not uniform. >> > Read sci.astro's FAQ > http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/students/lazio/sci.astro.3.FAQ > The four hundred years cycle is inaccurate, as following it would add three > days to each 10,000 years, and thus the cycle does not repeat it self. By our calendar, *as it is currently defined*, there is a 400 year cycle. I';ll even quote the sci.astro FAQ: |The error in the Gregorian calendar will build up to a full day in |roughly 3000 years, by which time another reform will be necessary. |Various schemes have been proposed, some taking account of the changing |lengths of the day and/or the tropical year, but none has been |internationally recognized. Leaving a reform to our descendants seems |reasonable, since there is no obvious need to make a correction now. *When* the next calendar reform happens, the 400-year cycle will be altered. But from the adoption of the Gregorian calendar (the year varying with the political unit; 1753 was the first full year for England and her colonies) until such time as the eventual adjustment is made, the 400 cycle will exist. And who knows? Maybe our descendants won't care about maintaining some preconceived notion about keeping celestial events and the calendar in sync and the cycle will never be broken. --Ken Pizzini