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From: Moderator, UFO UpDates
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 06:38:58 -0400
Fwd Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 06:38:58 -0400
Subject: Ancient Indian Astronomers Knew Speed Of Light?


The UFOMind Mailing List at:
http://www.ufomind.com/misc/1998/jul/d18-001.shtml


From: Glenn Campbell <campbell@ufomind.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 00:15:27 -0800


This evening (July 17) I was listening to the BBC World Service
on shortwave radio -- a highly regarded source of news.  I was
listening to a science news program; I don't recall its name.

A segment of the program said that Vedic astronomers in 14th
Century India had accurately predicted both the speed of light
and the age of the universe.

I remember only the general outline of the claims...

A modern Indian scholar, while researching ancient Vedic texts,
came across a hymn to the sun which specified the speed at which
the sun's light travels to the earth.  When the ancient
measurement system was translated into modern units, it came to
some 300,000 km/second, which is the figure we know today.
Related texts seem to estimate the age of the universe -- about
8 billion years.

The question is, how would they have known this figure?

The program was vague about how the ancient astronomers might
have measured this.  However, the possibility of random
coincidence was ruled out.

The program said that Western science began to measure the speed
of light in the 17th century and didn't have an accurate figure
until the 19th century.

The program assigned no great significance to the finding; it
was presented simply as a scientific oddity. Certainly no
extraterrestrial theory was offered.

I tried a web search for more info about this specific claim but
haven't found anything yet - however, I did create a web page
for Vedic astrology at:

www.ufomind.com/para/spirit/astrology/vedic/

Does anyone know how to further investigate this? Certainly
there most be a news story in print somewhere on the recent
discovery.

It smells like an interesting anomaly.

Glenn