MDDM Ch. 7 a few questions

[John Bailey]

Oops. Got in there before me I see. I really should check my inbox before 
sending off stuff. Thanks Cyrus, good stuff here.


>From: CyrusGeo at netscape.net
>To: jbor at bigpond.com (jbor)
>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: RE: MDDM Ch. 7 a few questions
>Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:14:55 -0400
>
>jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
> >What's a "Jethro's Tent"? (60.17)
> >
> >What is the Greek letter given to Mason's "Looking-Glass ... Coefficient 
>of
> >Mercy"? (61.5)
> >
> >Who's the Emerson Dixon is compared to at 61.20?
> >
> >What is "*Dagga*"? (65.8)
> >
> >What is the second altitude of Shaula? (71.6, 72.15)
> >
> >What are "Ridottoes"? (71.16)
> >
> >What's a "*Nervus Probandi*"? (73.21)
> >
> >best
>
>I hope the following will help:
>
>1. From http://www.nunki.net/PerDud/TheWorks/Express/TowerBabel.html
>"The Bible then describes Moses' exile from Egypt, after killing the 
>Egyptian overseer, and his flight into Sinai where he was sheltered by the 
>Midianite priest, Jethro. There in the safety of Jethro's tent the young 
>Moses married the desert chief's eldest daughter and settled down to the 
>life of a shepherd."
>
>2. It's the letter M (M is the capital), pronouned Mu in Ancient Greek and 
>Mi in Modern Greek. Mathematics often uses Greek letters as symbols or to 
>term coefficients. As the small Greek M is relative to m, it's easy to see 
>how it could be used to term a "coefficient of mercy".
>
>3. From http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/e.html
>
>Emerson, William (1701-82)
>
>"Jeremiah Dixon and his Brother", by H.P. Hollis, Journal of the British 
>Astronomy Association, v44, n8, June 1934, pp 294-9:
>
>There was living at that time at the village of Hurworth, a few miles from 
>Darlington, an eccentric character, William Emerson, whose 
>unconventionality in dress and manners were rather at variance with the 
>fact that he was a man of education with considerable knowledge of 
>mathematics and physics. ... Jeremiah was brought to notice by someone 
>named Emerson who was probably this man; that he was summoned to the 
>Woolwich academy for examination and evidently satisfied his examiners, for 
>they asked him, "Were you at Oxford or Cambridge?" "Neither," he said. 
>"Well then, where did you get your knowledge of astronomy?" "In my 
>pit-cabin at Cockfield Fell," he replied, meaning doubtless in the office 
>at his father's colliery where he was then engaged in some capacity above 
>ground.
>17; Dixon's "old teacher"; Mr. Emerson was a real person, a minor 
>mathematician and scientist of his day who wrote about a dozen scientific 
>books and texts and whom Jeremiah Dixon did in fact know personally. 
>Emerson's mystickal nature may be a Pynchon invention; 73; 98; 215; 251; 
>268; 317; 318; 423; coat, 500; 556; of Hurworth, 568; 709
>
>4. Dagga is the Afrikaans word for marijuana.
>
>5. From 
>www.advancement.cnet.navy.mil/products/web-pdf/tramans/bookchunks/14070_ch15.pdf
>
>Because of the vast distance between the earth and
>the fixed stars, the difference between the surface-plane
>altitude and the center-of-the-earth-plane altitude is
>small enough to be ignored. For the sun and for planets,
>however, a correction for parallax must be applied to the
>observed altitude (symbol ho) to get the true altitude (h,).
>A second altitude correction is the correction for refraction a phenomenon 
>that causes a slight curve in light rays traveling to the observer from a 
>body observed at low altitude.
>
>6. A ridotto is (here) "an entertainment or social assembly consisting of 
>music and dancing." (OED)
>
>7. Nervus probandi: Latin: nervus = sinew, tendon, probandi = of proof. 
>(Somewhat metaphorically, I imagine.)
>
>Cyrus
>
>
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