The Ratios the Old Builders Worked To

Four cultures that never met built to the same handful of ratios.

The observation is real, the explanations offered for it are mostly not. Here are the four ratios, how to read proportion in anything built, the squared circle, and a clear line between what is measured and what is projected onto it.

Inside

• The observation that started it — the string test you can run this afternoon, and the leap the builders made from it
• What four cultures found — Mesopotamian base sixty, the Egyptian rope-stretchers, the Vedic altar manuals, the Mayan double count, and why their agreement is the strongest evidence
• The four ratios — and an honest note on the one that attracts more nonsense than the rest of the subject combined
• Reading proportion in what was built — the method, and how to apply it to anything you make
• The squared circle — two thousand years of failure, and why the failure was informative
• What is real and what is projected — three categories, tested
• Building with it — six instructions that work on a room, a page or a piece of music
• The hours of setting out and the numbers beneath the work
• The four bodies of the builder, and the craft standard the old builders held
• The Nine Days — ending with the string test, done by hand

Format

• 15-page illustrated PDF, 7 × 10in
• Two plates from a 1603 star atlas
• Instant download, delivered the moment payment clears

Digital product. No physical item is shipped.