Comments on: Crop circularity

By: Paul Scott Anderson

Paul Scott Anderson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:24:07 +0000

As usual, it is being ignored that there is physical evidence that _some_ formations are not man-made:

http://www.bltresearch.com

There is also historical evidence for primarily simpler formations dating back at least a few centuries from multiple countries (including detailed accounts by spectroscopist J. Rand Capron in Nature magazine, 1880 and professor Robert Plot, LLD in A Natural History of Staffordshire, 1686):

http://www.bltresearch.com/otherfacts.html

Widespread current hoaxing has simply now overshadowed what may be another interesting (natural?) phenomenon.

Additional info is also on the CCCRN web site.

Paul Scott Anderson
founder
Canadian Crop Circle Research Network
http://www.cccrn.ca
(1995-2008)

By: Irishman

Irishman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:41:57 +0000

Lyle, as I already said, “encoded” is confusing people. This is a visual representation of pi in base 10. Quite different from the fact that pi is the relationship between diameter and circumference of a circle.

By: Kid Cool

Kid Cool — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:07:47 +0000

I don’t think those aliens are that smart they don’t have a 0

By: amphiox

amphiox — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:21:56 +0000

Now if there was ever found a crop circle that DID NOT encode pi, no matter how we analyzed it, then that might be something interesting.

By: Lyle Bateman (aka Elron Steele)

Lyle Bateman (aka Elron Steele) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:41:37 +0000

Wouldn’t EVERY crop “circle” have pi encoded into it, by the simple fact of it being a CIRCLE???? The very nature of circles is based on the encoding of pi through area and circumference.

By: Tim G

Tim G — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:51:22 +0000

KevinS,

rob had a “smiley face” at the end of his post. The aspect of earth’s elliptical orbit is very close to unity, btw.

Anyway, I think 10^7.5 is just as easy to remember and is twice as accurate.

By: Grendels dad

Grendels dad — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:52:11 +0000

Am I the only one who expected something about circular irrigation patterns after reading the title of this post? Maybe some cool satalite photos?

Must have left my woo filter set too high… And my irony meter is still in the shop. Some days you just can’t win.

By: KevinS

KevinS — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:26:28 +0000

i once told my physics students an easy way to remember approximately how many seconds there are in a year is pi X 10^7. one student asked why it was pi and not some other number. i told him because the earth’s orbit is round.

I’m confused because the two have nothing to do with each other aside from coincidence. Plus the earth’s orbit isn’t round.

Anyways, someone needs to get on making a base twenty-six crop circle to further confound the crop-circle folk. I’ve already got the perfect encoding:
11-12-1-1-20-21 space 2-1-18-1-4-1 space 14-9-11-20-15

By: Irishman

Irishman — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:44:45 +0000

If you look at the article, check the picture box. There are three thumbnails under the picture. Click the middle one (with pretty colors). It visually demonstrates what the words are trying to depict.

This is a visual representation of pi. “Encoding” is a confusing word. And yes, there is a decimal point and an ellipsis (…).

By: TR

TR — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:30:28 +0000

Hey Ken S.

I didn’t even recognize the ellipses – good catch!

By: Adela

Adela — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:24:48 +0000

It’s all about getting the crop insurance agents to pay out.

By: themadlolscientist

themadlolscientist — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:08:50 +0000

Some of them have made patterns in fields as part of advertising campaigns.

=LOL= Like this one?

By: phxbruzer

phxbruzer — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:30:33 +0000

It being a circle, by it’s very nature isn’t pi already “encoded” in it? :0)

By: skrap1r0n

skrap1r0n — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:04:37 +0000

I by no means believe crop circles are anything but man made, however I find them extremely cool and imaginative.

That said, this particular crop circle is particularly interesting. I didn’t read every comment, so if this has been said, my apologies, but The way I understand it, the circle is divided into 10ths. starting in the middle, move 108 degrees clockwise for 3, there you will see the decimal, then 36 more degrees for 1, 144 more degrees for 4 etc.

By: rob

rob — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:45:04 +0000

i once told my physics students an easy way to remember approximately how many seconds there are in a year is pi X 10^7. one student asked why it was pi and not some other number. i told him because the earth’s orbit is round.

By: Joe Meils

Joe Meils — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:38:25 +0000

Quick! Someone turn crop circles into a “theory” so that we can teach it to school children in Louisiana! I can see it now: FFA, Algerbra I, Creationist Theory, and Intro to Aliens in Your Cornfeild, (right after gym class)

By: MedTek(sandra)

MedTek(sandra) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:35:11 +0000

To be fair, the Metro (daily free commuter paper for London) and other London papers had a pretty good explanation of how this represents PI, and didn’t inject any of the “done by aliens” brouhaha into it. Instead, most of their article seemed to focus on the fact that it was just cool that someone would do this.

By: Ken B

Ken B — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:34:08 +0000

quasidog:

People that reckon crop circles to be from an alien source are also the same sort of people that see a magic trick performed by some magician, and because they don’t know how it worked they then suspect the magician might actually be using real magic. ….. and the same group that think astrology works. … and that fairies are real ….. and that Bush didn’t cheat to get in.

In other words, Fox’s target audience.

By: Ken S.

Ken S. — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:22:18 +0000

I find it interesting that the aliens also use a “…” to signify a continuation to infinity, just like us ‘lil humans do.

By: TR

TR — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:15:06 +0000

Not only is it surprising that a 3-fingered alien would use a base-10 number system, but the really astounding coincidence is that these creatures from another world also use a small round dot to divide the one’s place from the tenths! We haven’t even managed to come to a unanimous decision about that one here on Earth! (Many human cultures use a decimal comma instead of a decimal point.)

By: Sir Eccles

Sir Eccles — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:08:00 +0000

The funniest thing about crop circles are the TV documentaries. You know the ones where the producer gets his camera crew to film some locals flattening the stalks with a board and two pieces of string then invites the true believer crop circle investigators to come have a look. The quotes are usually priceless…

“Look how each stem is individually bent”

“I can feel their presence, just look at my dowsing rods go!”

“Wow this pattern is so complex”

“This is definitely a genuine crop circle”

etc…

By: Sili

Sili — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:46:35 +0000

hmmm – Now I’m thinking that when I discover the proof that Riemann’s Hypothesis is undecidable I’ll have to draw it out in a wheat field. That’ll certainly make for a naming convention to beat out “student’s t”.

By: Rev. BigDumbChimp

Rev. BigDumbChimp — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:10:52 +0000

I actually saw a few crop circles in England in the early 90′s. We were on our way toward Bath and saw some off the road. I was on a hill looking across a field at them thinking “Some jackass spent all night doing that”. And of course, the other American Tourist next to me said out loud. “They’ve proven that there is alien life visiting us.”

Thankfully there was a pub close by.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:29:57 +0000

“It’s really hard to find anything dumber than crop circles. I don’t usually use words like that, but c’mon! Aliens come here from a bazillion miles away just to flatten cereal stalks?”

Sure.

Earth is just a big canvas for a bunch of alien art students.

By: Wayne Robinson

Wayne Robinson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:21:29 +0000

I would have been more impressed if the crop circle had shown “pi” as 3.00000 exactly (as the Bible reckons it is, see 1.Kings 7,23 etc), and that would really have pleased “the Bible is literally true” crowd no end. I thought the pretty complex geometric pattern on the “Top of the Crops 2007″ http://www.circlemakers.org/totc2007.html much better.