Thanks to Corona, it’s been quite awhile since we’ve really had an Arts & Sciences competition here in Calontir. While we had a virtual Kingdom A&S in $2020$ the last one we had in person was Queen’s Prize in $2019$.
However, this past weekend we finally had another in person Queen’s Prize and I entered my latest paper revising Ptolemy’s models for use in the present day. My previous entry attempted to update the solar model but contained critical errors1. This was revealed when I started attempting to update the lunar model. Realizing that it was predicting solar positions that would have made the eclipses necessary to calibrate the lunar model impossible, I revisited the solar model and made the necessary corrections.
That, plus the first lunar model were included in this year’s entry which was rewritten using LaTeX for a smoother editing and reading experience as Google’s equation editor was rather poor. The paper ended up being $62$ pages (although roughly $45\%$ of that was front material and appendices) which was a lot to expect anyone to read. As such, I also created a TL;DR version for passerbys.
I obviously went full science fair on the display as I’ve been speaking to several people since returning to in person events and have been getting some feedback that, while most everyone knows that I’m doing some sort of science project, few people understand what it is. Thus, the display is really meant to grab attention and highlight the goals and processes related to the paper. For good measure, I did toss in about other aspects of the project, such as the use of the quadrant (which is why the issue of Sky & Telescope in which it was featured was laying on the table as well) and the classes I’ve been teaching.
As far as judging went, it was about as expected. Due to the exceptionally technical nature of the paper, only one of the three judges was able to follow it. The other two had minor comments about formatting, noting that it goes from relatively simple (in the first chapter which walks through many of the concepts and basic mathematical techniques), to jumping into the deep end in chapter $2$ as I derive the solar model. This extreme disparity was too much for them and they suggested including more at the beginning of the technical chapters to outline where it’s going so the point of all the math is a bit clearer for those that aren’t comfortable strapping in and going along for the ride and finding out where it all ends up when we get there. It’s something I’ll consider for the future, but I didn’t intend for this paper to be for everyone anyway, so may not.
The third judge was able to nearly complete the paper. The only reason she didn’t finish in time was that she stopped to question an equation for which I didn’t provide a complete proof and tried to derive it herself. She was eventually successful despite using entirely different methods than Ptolemy did. However, she offered the most useful critique, finding several typos and encouraging me to expand on some ideas that weren’t entirely clear. I’ve made the necessary corrections which are present in the paper linked above.
Aside from my own entry, I also offered to be a judge and ended up being assigned to judge a mead2. For those that aren’t aware, mead is similar to wine except that the sugars for the yeast are provided by honey.
Normally, this isn’t something I’d talk about in this blog as I try to limit this to things pertaining to my astronomy project, but this particular brew actually had a surprising astronomical component. Specifically, the project involved attempting to recreate mead as described by Pliny in his Natural History. In it, he notes that it should be made and kept in the hot sun for $40$ days after the rising of the Dog Star.
This is, of course, describing the star Sirius, which can first be seen rising shortly before sunrise in late summer3. This informed the temperatures that the brew should ferment in. Specifically, it should be hot! Most commercial yeasts today prefer a temperature in the mid to high $60’s$4. Rather, this brew would likely have an average temperature of around $90º F$. This would place a lot of strain on the yeast and produce a lot of off flavors.
Indeed, the entrant noted that most people that have attempted to brew using this method as described, have extremely poor results. However, these brands of yeasts are ones that have been bred in modern times and research is suggesting that more ancient forms of yeast were in fact able to tolerate much higher temperatures.
In particular, the entrant suggested that Kveik yeast is likely to best represent historical yeasts and as such, he used this variety, fermenting hot for a very short nine days. Aside from the high temperatures, I would expect most yeasts to still be quite active after that time, having not worked through the sugar. This would produce a drink that still had a very yeasty taste. However, this variety chewed through the sugar5 so fast, that it had largely dropped out. I could definitely still smell it, but it was not nearly as notable on the tongue. Because of that, it was quite dry, but adding a bit of honey water to taste, as was done in Roman times, made it quite drinkable.
Overall, it was a good weekend. However, now my attentions are turning towards some new classes for Lilies War and our local barony. As such, posting on the Almagest may be slow for awhile6.
- Such as the center of the eccentre changing which caused the table of anomaly to need to be recalculated as well.
- Brewing is one of the other things I do in the SCA. However, I don’t do it in a particularly period manner, and am mostly in it for having fun things to drink with friends. However, it’s still a field that I’m moderately knowledgeable about which is why I offered to judge this category.
- This is known as its helical-rising.
- Fahrenheit.
- And pretty much everything else. The entrant noted that this brand of yeast is so aggressive, it actually has anti-bacterial properties and is being investigated to see if it might be able to combat staph infections.
- Or might not. We’ll see. I really want to hit that $50\%$ mark…