Angell, I. O. (1978). The megalithic yard: fact or fiction?. MASCA J 1. Vol 1, pp. 82-84.
 Title The title of the publication or report |
The megalithic yard: fact or fiction? |
|---|---|
Issue The name of the volume or issue |
MASCA J 1 |
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
MASCA Journal |
Volume Volume number and part |
1 |
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
82 - 84 |
Biblio Note This is a Bibliographic record only. |
Please note that this is a bibliographic record only, as originally entered into the BIAB database. The ADS have no files for download, and unfortunately cannot advise further on where to access hard copy or digital versions. |
Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal |
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
Strongly questions the validity of the statistical analysis by which Alexander Thom has deduced the existence of a Megalithic Yard accurate to + 0.003 feet used for laying out many of the stone rings throughout Britain. The data used by Thom himself - the diameters of 145 circles - cannot be tested by a simple quantum hypothesis: at each site one has to consider not just the intended value of the measuring unit, but also the number of units making up the diameter. For large circles, two different units, only slightly differing in value, can both be fitted an integral number of times to the measured diameter; the inclusion of these sites in the analysis leads to artificially small residual errors and hence to an overestimate of the accuracy of the supposed measuring unit. This and other problems lead to the conclusion that by Broadbent's criterion Thom's case for an accurate MY is unproven. C R |
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
1978 |
Source Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in. |
BIAB
(British Archaeological Abstracts (BAA))
|
Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
05 Dec 2008 |
