virus: Witnessing to Liberals

John ''I Take Large Steps'' Williams (prefect@tricon.net)
Wed, 25 Jun 1997 23:49:24 -0400


Okay, Mr. Rhodes, I was with you, and you were making sense, until you
quoted this:

>Suppose that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the
>face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep.

on "Witnessing to Liberals" at
http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Liberalism.html.

What??

First of all 1 in 1017 is not long odds. I attended a college of 30,000.
That's 3,000 potiential messiahs, given a similar number of prophecies that
cite "Virginia Tech" as the messiah's alma mater, etc (meaning: culturally
& temporally equivalent prophecies to Biblical prophecy).

Secondly, if 1017 silver dollars will cover the state of Texas twice, I'll
EAT the state of Texas.

1017 coins in two layers:
508.5 coins in a layer
22.54 coins per side
(22.55 * 22.55 = 508.5)

Assuming each coin occupies a square space 2 inches on a side:

22.55 coins = 45.1 inches

So one layer of 508.5 coins occupies 2034 square inches. (45.1 * 45.1)

That means that, for 1017 coins to cover the state of Texas twice, the
State of Texas would have to be 45 inches on a side, or have a total
surface area of 169.5 square feet. I think most Texans would complain.

My math isn't the best, but note that if I've underestimated or made a
mathematical error, even an error that makes my answer 1/1000 of the actual
figure, at 168500 square feet ( 32 square miles ), the figure is still
off by 266,968 square miles (according to the state of Texas page at
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/edu/texas/txfacts.htm).

Indeed, at their estimate of 800 miles x 800 miles:
800 miles =
4,224,000 feet =
50,688,000 inches per side.

50,688,000^2 = 2,569,273,344,000,000 square inches or
642,318,336,000,000 square coins (2" on a side = 4 square inches).

you need 642,318,336,000,000 coins on *one* layer to cover the state of Texas.

That's $642,318,336,000,000, or .75 Bill Gates. Two layers is 1.5 Bill Gates.

Do you know what math Mr. Stoner used?

Thanks ---

-- John

Note: the Eating of the state of Texas does not apply if you are merely
fitting all the coins on a map of the state of Texas.

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