If you find both circumference and diameter based measurements then searching for a ratio can uncover the unit size of the wheel. Which is probably something you do when you already expect pi to appear.
Yeah, I missed that he said 5 diameters, not rotations.
Though, it strikes me as odd that people would be making diameter based measurements with a wheel tool for the same reason it would be weird for people to be making measurements with the short side of a yard stick. Seems like a needlessly difficult way to get a measurement when your existing tool already has an easy and codified way of getting measurements.
I’m no historian or whatever, so maybe that’s something they did do in antiquity. But it seems unlikely to me, and if we have evidence that they did, I’d be interested to see it.
If you find both circumference and diameter based measurements then searching for a ratio can uncover the unit size of the wheel. Which is probably something you do when you already expect pi to appear.
Yeah, I missed that he said 5 diameters, not rotations.
Though, it strikes me as odd that people would be making diameter based measurements with a wheel tool for the same reason it would be weird for people to be making measurements with the short side of a yard stick. Seems like a needlessly difficult way to get a measurement when your existing tool already has an easy and codified way of getting measurements.
I’m no historian or whatever, so maybe that’s something they did do in antiquity. But it seems unlikely to me, and if we have evidence that they did, I’d be interested to see it.