THE PYRAMID AND THE FIFTEEN PUZZLE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2036, 2 September 1880, Page 3

THE PYRAMID AND THE FIFTEEN PUZZLE.

The celebrated astronomer, Mr B, A Proctor, who is now on a visit to the colonies thus in a recent article connects the two sub jeots_which bave been recently exercising tht publio mind here—viz., the Pyramid of Jeezel and _ the Fifteen Gem Puzzle :—" Here, ir passing, I may note that Professor Piazzl Smythe, and other believers in the Great Pyramid, may find in the above numbers proof positive that the architects of that building at onco anticipated the celebrity of the Great Boss Puzzle, and were acquainted with tbe distance of the star Alpha Oentauri, the nearest of all the stars. The proof runs thus:—The base of the pyramid is square, like the Fifteen Puzzle box, and has four sides, suggesting manifestly tho division of eaoh side into four equal parts, and, by cross lines through these, the division of the Equare into sixteen squares. But tho pyramid has only one apex, hence is at onco suggested tho removal of one of the sixteen squares, leaving the magic fifteen. Then the fifteen problem admits of 20,922,789,888,000 distinct positions. Now, all the best measurements of the distance of Alpha Oentauri indicate rather more than 20 billions of miles. Unquestionably the true distance must bo just 20,922,789,888,000 milos; and this the pyramid architects manifestly knew. But they could not have learned this by any observations possible in their time. Hence we have further evidence of supernaturally imparted knowledge. Quod erat demonstrandum,"