At the time of the dervishes' visit to the Forbidden City, Laotzu happened to be staying there. The Emperor sent for Laotzu and asked him about the frequencies of dervish light.
"In order to relate the wavelengths and frequencies, your Majesty must imagine the speed of light," said the sage. "Pray describe the speed of light," replied the Emperor.
"The ancients", said Laotzu, "measured the wavelengths of light in millionths of a bone. It is a sign of good fortune that a bone is the thickness at first knuckle of the little finger of the Son of Heaven. A hundred fingerwidths make a pace, and a thousand paces make a mile. In one minute, light travels ten million miles. This is the same as a trillion widths of your Majesty's little finger."
The throne room had a great south-facing window and sunlight was streaming in through it. The Emperor gestured towards the sun, and Laotzu understood the question. "How the sun moves from the standpoint of Earth mirrors how the Earth moves from the standpoint of the sun, your Majesty, and the Earth is traveling one thousand miles a minute around the sun. It's speed is a tenthousandth that of light."
Then the three dervishes opened their mouths and light emerged of wavelengths three: 7 millionths and 5 millionths and 4 millionths of a bone.
And Laotzu divided the speed of light by each of these three wavelengths and got 140 quadrillion per minute and 200 quadrillion per minute, and 250 quadrillion per minute.
In this way the sage obtained for the Emperor the frequencies of the three colors of dervish light.
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Copyright © 2002 Leonard Cottrell. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
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arithmetic:
The main arithmetical point is simply that 1012 divided by 10-6 gives 1018, which is a 1000 quadrillion. Along those same lines, dividing 1012 by 5×10-6 gives 200 quadrillion.
Dividing the speed of light by a wavelength gives the frequency of light with that wavelength. The speed of light is 1012 bone/minute and a wavelength typical of green light is 5×10-6 bone. Dividing the speed by the wavelength gives 200 ×1015/minute. The other reckonings are done in similar fashion.
140, 200, and 250 quadrillion per minute are frequencies of red, green, and deep violet-blue light. (Angular format for frequency and wavelength is used throughout.)
It just happens that the earth's average orbit speed is very close to one tenthousandth of the speed of light. This is one thousand miles per minute.
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