From: Raymond Mercier (RaymondM@compuserve.com)
Date: Wed May 18 2005 - 08:24:57 CDT
I did know that the A series starts with 1 sqm., and continues with constant aspect ratio, leading to 29.73.
As to the Roman foot, this is a surprisingly uniform standard, essentialy 29.7 cm, and was established by various people from the 15th century, such as John Greaves ca 1620, who composed a tract about it. It is fixed, for example, by measuring the tiling of the floor of the Pantheon in Rome, to reveal a basic unit. There were many other approaches, yielding the same result.
See for instance http://www.metrum.org/measures/lineal.htm.
Coincidence, very probably, I agree - but just can't help thinking that the A series, for all its a priori character, might have stood out from other possible a priori schemes because it fitted with the Roman foot.
Years ago I was writing on ancient geodesy and also programming a graph plotter for my new PC, when the coincidence hit me.
Raymond Mercier
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