I did notice both the date and the name, Apraphul. I was referred to the article by a guy who had not noticed and was enthusiastic about that "piece of history". He was predictably embarrassed when I pointed out his error. On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 8:53 PM, Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
You did notice that this article was in the April issue, right?
--Dan
On Sep 11, 2014, at 5:33 PM, Jeff Caldwell <jeffrey.d.caldwell@gmail.com> wrote:
Who can beat elephants pulling on ropes 1200 years ago to calculate navigation parameters in binary? It must be true, it was in Scientific American.
http://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/sciam1980.html#Anonymous:1988:ARP
The full article isn't as easily found online as it was years ago. "An ancient rope-and-pulley computer is unearthed in the jungle of Apraphul By A. K. Dewdney"
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