The Sand Reckoner of Archimedes (Forgotten Books)

This short treatise of Archimedes on the amount of sand grains which could be contained in the ancient model of the universe is remarkable. It uses some extremely large numbers, given that this was antiquity and Europeans did not yet have the benefit of decimal notation. It also anticipates the method of Calculus: measuring by subdivision into very small quanta, in this case grains of sand. Also of interest are Archimedes' (incorrect but informed) estimates of the relative size of the sun, moon and earth. The argument can be followed by anyone who has mastered basic algebra. (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

About the Author

Julius Wellhausen (1844 - 1918)
Julius Wellhausen (May 17, 1844 - January 7, 1918), was a German biblical scholar and Orientalist. He was born at Hameln on the Weser, Westphalia. Having studied theology at the University of Gottingen under Georg Heinrich August Ewald, he established himself there in 1870 as Privatdozent for Old Testament history. In 1872 he was appointed professor ordinarius of theology at Greifswald. Resigning in 1882 for reasons of conscience, he became professor extraordinarius of oriental languages in the faculty of philology at Halle, was elected professor ordinarius at Marburg in 1885, and was transferred to Gottingen in 1892 where he stayed until his death. Wellhausen was famous for his critical investigations into Old Testament history and the composition of the Hexateuch, the uncompromising scientific attitude he adopted in testing its problems bringing him into antagonism with the older school of biblical interpreters. He is perhaps most well-known for his Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels of 1883 (first published 1878 as Geschichte Israels), in which he advanced a definitive formulation of the Documentary hypothesis, arguing that the Torah