"Nameless" <news.mail@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fsb9f6$42j$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "Judson McClendon" wrote:
>> I recently did a study of Easter date algorithms. You can download a
>> do***ent containing a summary of the results (page 6) here:
>>
>> http://www.sunvaley.com/TEMP/Formulas.pdf
>
> Thanks, such is always of interest. ;)
>
> At the bottom of page 8, you write:
>
> "In 1940 J.M. Oudin published this Easter algorithm as a
> correction to Carl Friedrich Gauss' Easter computation of
> 1800, which was flawed."
>
> I recall seeing this statement before, but for some reason
> never investigated it further. Would you care to expand on
> this, what flaw?
Although it doesn't mention 1800, here's a Website that discusses some of
Gauss'
flaws:
http://www.georgeszpiro.com/index.asp?page=kepler/chapter07.htm
"Why did Gauss's formula for the determination of Easter holiday stop in
1999? In his
calculations he went all the way to leap2-years but, unlike Pope Gregory,
he decided
to stop short of leap3-years. That means that his formula gives the
correct results
only until the first leap3-year, which was the year 2000. After that, the
results are
off by one day, and after the year 2400 they will be off by two days.
That's a real
shame, because it would have been ever so nice to use Gauss's method at
least until
the year 2525."
Tom Lake
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