What I (may) have discovered about American history
Sept 4, 2017 1:21:42 GMT -6
katmak, sawdy, and 2 more like this
Post by watchmanjim on Sept 4, 2017 1:21:42 GMT -6
Over the last few days, I had some ideas about significant days in American history. I tried to find some patterns, and was struggling with that.
I tried to find special events on every 13th year (13 original states), every 7th year, etc. but I was struggling to make sense of it all. Finally I realized that I was missing the forest for the trees. Instead of looking for specific events every so many years, instead I should look at the PERIOD of years staked out in x-long cycles.
I pondered on how the USA turned 241 years old this year. 241 is a prime number. If 2017 is the USA's last year of history, then 241 is not easily divisible by anything. (Yes, we say the USA is indivisible, I know).
Then I realized, yes, but 242 years are involved, because you need to count both the first and the last year. This made things divisible by 11, but I still wasn't finding what I was looking for.
Then I realized that I was forgetting something. The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, but..... BUT..... there was a whole year of war before that, and the 13 colonies were functioning together as an ad hoc nation even then. The events of 1775 could not be ignored. Without the events and progress of 1775, the Declaration of 1776 would not be possible. Therefore, I included 1775 in the total and I got 243 years. That's where it gets crazy. . . .
243 is 3 to the 5th power. 3x3x3x3x3. Also known as 9x9x3. When I included 1775, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Revolutionary War lasted for 9 years.
I tentatively put together a spreadsheet breaking up the 243 years of American history into blocks of 9, 27, and 81. What I found was very illuminating to me--- every block of time seemed to be approximately important. There were a few exceptions where things didn't fit so neatly, but patterns seemed to emerge, especially about the wars.
I found there were 3 major wars the US was involved with that shaped the three eras of American history. The Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II changed everything for the USA. Each came early in its "third" of American history. Further breaking the history down into 9 sets of 27 years, each set of 27 years had a major war (the 3 mentioned already, and 6 more). These wars also helped define the period of 27 years you find them in.
I submit to you my document. You may see that there are many more events I could have added and did not, partly because too many events would have added more confusion.
American 9 year history.xlsx (22.25 KB)
I tried to find special events on every 13th year (13 original states), every 7th year, etc. but I was struggling to make sense of it all. Finally I realized that I was missing the forest for the trees. Instead of looking for specific events every so many years, instead I should look at the PERIOD of years staked out in x-long cycles.
I pondered on how the USA turned 241 years old this year. 241 is a prime number. If 2017 is the USA's last year of history, then 241 is not easily divisible by anything. (Yes, we say the USA is indivisible, I know).
Then I realized, yes, but 242 years are involved, because you need to count both the first and the last year. This made things divisible by 11, but I still wasn't finding what I was looking for.
Then I realized that I was forgetting something. The Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, but..... BUT..... there was a whole year of war before that, and the 13 colonies were functioning together as an ad hoc nation even then. The events of 1775 could not be ignored. Without the events and progress of 1775, the Declaration of 1776 would not be possible. Therefore, I included 1775 in the total and I got 243 years. That's where it gets crazy. . . .
243 is 3 to the 5th power. 3x3x3x3x3. Also known as 9x9x3. When I included 1775, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Revolutionary War lasted for 9 years.
I tentatively put together a spreadsheet breaking up the 243 years of American history into blocks of 9, 27, and 81. What I found was very illuminating to me--- every block of time seemed to be approximately important. There were a few exceptions where things didn't fit so neatly, but patterns seemed to emerge, especially about the wars.
I found there were 3 major wars the US was involved with that shaped the three eras of American history. The Revolution, the Civil War, and World War II changed everything for the USA. Each came early in its "third" of American history. Further breaking the history down into 9 sets of 27 years, each set of 27 years had a major war (the 3 mentioned already, and 6 more). These wars also helped define the period of 27 years you find them in.
I submit to you my document. You may see that there are many more events I could have added and did not, partly because too many events would have added more confusion.
American 9 year history.xlsx (22.25 KB)
