Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Equation for the Calculation of Scroll Length

So apparently I missed Pi day, but I figured I would offer one fun equation a day late to honor the occasion. This is a preview of a forthcoming publication of mine on methods for reconstructing fragmentary scrolls in a conference proceedings volume. So here is the equation "to estimate the realistic length of material that can be expected to have been rolled up inside of a given point in the scroll (lr-real). Note well that this is not the total length of the scroll, but only the length of the rest of the material that would have been rolled inside of a given point in the scroll. If ri is the radius of the unused inner core, r is the radius of the scroll at a given point in the scroll from which lr-real is calculated, and z is the increase in circumference per turn of the scroll, then:


So if you happen to have a fragmentary scroll lying around where you can figure out how big it was at a certain point and can estimate how big the unused inner core was and how much you think the circumference grew each turn of the scroll, why not give it a shot!? :) Seriously though, I do think it is a very helpful equation for those working with fragmentary scrolls. If you ever have use of it but aren't comfortable with the math, don't hesitate to ask!

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