Subject: Re: [HM] Calendrical questions
From: Ivan Van Laningham (ivanlan@callware.com)
Date: Mon Jan 31 2000 - 13:16:14 EST
Hi All--
Raymond Ayoub wrote:
> You will find an appendix on calendar problems in "NUMBER THEORY by
> Uspensky and Heaslet. In particular the date of Easter as analysed
> by C.F. Gauss is given. Gauss, incidentally was quite proud of his
> calculation!
Gauss' calculation, however, was wrong. It gave incorrect dates from
~4200CE on. Oudin's algorithm is correct; so too are the algorithms of
Meeus, Knuth and O'Beirne (O'Beirne provides two algorithms). In these
days of high speed computers, there's not much reason to choose one over
the other. All correct algorithms can, with few modifications, provide
accurate proleptic Easter dates.
Marcos J. Montes has the best references/webpages for Easter and its
calculation. Start at:
http://smart.net/~mmontes/ec-cal.html
Marcos has a wealth of accurate information. Beware of the algorithm
published in David Ewing Duncan's _The Calendar: Humanity's Epic
Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year_. While an entertaining
book, and probably the best contemporary introduction to the history of
the Gregorian calendar, it is full of many small errors (cf. the famous
Chinese recipe, "Carp with many small bones").
<multitudo-paschatum>-ly y'rs,
Ivan
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan Van Laningham
Callware Technologies, Inc.
ivanlan@callware.com
ivanlan@home.com
http://www.pauahtun.org
See also:
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html
Army Signal Corps: Cu Chi, Class of '70
Author: Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours
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