Subject: Re: [HM] Calendrical questions
From: Roger CUCULIERE (cuculier@sophocle.imaginet.fr)
Date: Tue Feb 01 2000 - 16:50:47 EST
There is no Passover in the Islamic calendar. Any formula for this
calendar is not sure, because this calendar is purely lunar, and each
month (especially Ramadan) begins at a new moon, and this new moon
has to be seen by a believer.
RC
************************************************************************
A 12:57 01/02/00 -0500, vous avez ecrit:
>
> It is funny how rumors get started! With respect to (2) below,
> the necessary information is in Fraenkel's autobiography Lebenskreise.
> Shortly after his 16th birthday Fraenkel write his first published
> paper, which obtained a formula for the date of Passover in the Islamic
> calendar. This appeared in 1908 (Fraenkel was born in 1891). In autumn
> 1909 Fraenkel completed a far deeper calendrical study, which thanks to
> Alfred Loewy, who was not only a mathematician, but Fraenkel's uncle by
> marriage, appeared in Crelle. These publications leaned on the "Method
> of Gauss". (pp.76-77). Through a letter from Loewy and the Crelle paper
> (which was about the date of Easter), Fraenkel met Kurt Hensel (p.110).
> He wrote a dissertation with Hensel in ring theory and this also appeared
> in Crelle. Its title was "On Zero-Divisors and the Decomposition of
> Rings". He was awarded the doctoral degree in January 1914 summa cum
> laude.(pp. 119-120).
> While Fraenkel's autobiography is not always historically reliable,
> I think we can trust it on the events of his life.
> Sandy Segal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Tue Feb 01 2000 - 18:55:38 EST