A Sexagesimal Calculator for Ancient Astronomy
This is a web-based sexagesimal calculator for doing ancient astronomy. There is a live version available on sexagesimal.app.
It follows the notation conventions of G.J. Toomer's translation of Ptolemy's Almagest. 1.5
is written as 1;30
, where 30
represents thirty parts of sixty. Likewise, 0;30,30
is equal to 0 + 30/60 + 30/(60^2)
. Whole numbers are in decimal notation: 12;0 = 12.0
. Division is written with :
instead of /
, though /
will be automatically converted to :
.
You can also use crd
to take the chord of a number. Example: 3;45*crd1;2,50
. As written, this is not calculated using Ptolemy's method, though it will be eventually.
The calculator takes a query like 3;0+2;30*4;45,45
and returns a value in sexagesimal. Order of operations is PEMDAS. Decimal numbers and mixed decimal-sexagesimal expressions are also supported, e.g. 1;30*1.5
. Parentheses are respected, though there may still be some instances where they do not work. An example:
Ptolemy requires Flask.
source ptolemy-venv/bin/activate
- May need to install requirements from requirements.txt at this point.
flask --app ptolemy run