DiscussMormonism.com

In Journal of the Book of Mormon and other Restoration Scriptures John Gee has a paper where he seems to be replying to Cook and Chris Smith. has anyone else seen it. I look forward to their response.

FORMULAS AND FAITH

Checking the Formulas
Two different formulas have been published for
estimating the original length of a scroll, given the
length of each winding of the preserved intact exterior
portions. One has been proposed by the Egyptologist
Friedhelm Hoffmann12 and one by Andrew
Cook (a theoretical physicist) and Christopher Smith
(a former Unitarian ministerial student).13 The two
formulas are similar, differing primarily in minor details.
Cook and Smith use the thickness of the papyri
(which they did not measure but only estimated) as
an indication of the change in diameter to calculate
the difference between the lengths of successive
windings in the scroll. Hoffmann—knowing that
most papyri are already mounted, thus rendering it
impossible to measure the thickness—uses the average
difference between successive windings for the
same purpose.

Chris has already covered this. Gee errs when he claims that Cook and Smith only "estimate" the papyrus thickness. Cook and Smith calculate the thickness, which in any case is largely irrelevant to the length of the original scroll per the Hoffman formula (etc.). The errors compound from there.

aussieguy55 wrote:In Journal of the Book of Mormon and other Restoration Scriptures John Gee has a paper where he seems to be replying to Cook and Chris Smith. has anyone else seen it. I look forward to their response.

FORMULAS AND FAITH

Checking the Formulas
Two different formulas have been published for
estimating the original length of a scroll, given the
length of each winding of the preserved intact exterior
portions. One has been proposed by the Egyptologist
Friedhelm Hoffmann12 and one by Andrew
Cook (a theoretical physicist) and Christopher Smith
(a former Unitarian ministerial student).13 The two
formulas are similar, differing primarily in minor details.
Cook and Smith use the thickness of the papyri
(which they did not measure but only estimated) as
an indication of the change in diameter to calculate
the difference between the lengths of successive
windings in the scroll. Hoffmann—knowing that
most papyri are already mounted, thus rendering it
impossible to measure the thickness—uses the average
difference between successive windings for the
same purpose.

My response should appear in the next issue of Dialogue.