15552

Other independent researchers into ancient mathematics seem to have reached the same conclusion as I have about this number – that it’s an important one.

What first put it on my radar as an important number is that I stumbled across it while trying to work out the meaning of Mayan “Monster Mouths” or “Monster Masks”. I first became interested in them because they appear at Rio Bec, where some outstanding ancient mathematics may be on display.

Mayan “Monster Mouth” door facades: Mathematical Puzzles?

Illustrated is one speculative attempt at treating “Monster Mouths” as mathematical equations. The top row of teeth frequently has two large, possibly fused teeth at center, making it difficult to know exactly how to count these top teeth.

One way of counting it might be 8 top teeth but 7 because of the fused one = 8 x 7 = 56. That’s an important number to astronomy but without better understanding the rules of the game, it still feels a bit too much like numerology to me.

These “Masks” often have spiral eyes, and several mathematical constants such as e or Phi are associated with spirals, which we might have been intended to observe. Phi, or something close, has considerable importance in astronomy as well, and the logarithmic e constant isn’t that far from the Megalithic Yard and the lunar Draconic Month, which the Megalithic Yard may actually represent.

15552 is a number I obtained from an experiment like this. When I went to check to see if had relevant mathematical or astronomical properties, I was fairly impressed, and surprised at some of the important equations this number belongs to, and it’s still surprising me.

I managed to find some notes on this from last August that say the site was Tabasqueno. These then are these earliest insights from a little over a year ago, where there is obvious emphasis on the Venus Synodic Period of about 584 days, as well as 2.662867199, which is also of some importance to calendars.

Monster Mask (Upper level, North facade – illustrated Andrews 099 page 110)

Spiral-like shapes are found at either side of the door where we see teeth in other examples. Two vertical rows on either side may represent groups of (3+1 because 3 features are identical while a forth at the top is some different. This different spiral figure is next to the tooth at either end of the centered horizontal row.

Beneath the vertical rows are another horizontal row of three faintly spiral features each with may be similar enough to not differentiate.

3+1 may represent 12: 4 total x 3 identical ones = 12.

The horizontal row seems particularly puzzling as there are only four instead of more typical number. The center two are again somewhat “fused” into a single one. This may be an example of 3/4 in contrast to the 7/8 previously seen.

With three groups of 3/4 = 2 and two groups of 3,

3 x 12 x 12 x 12 x 3 = 15552 = 18980 x 819.3888308.

On our own terms rather than the terms of common Mayan math, that’s 15552 / 18983.99126 = 819.2165593 and 15552 / 18997.72194 = 818.6244671.

5.840321292 x 2.662867199 = 15552, exactly
2.662867199 / (5.840321292^1) = 4.559453062
2.662867199 / (5.840321292^2) = 780.6853140
5.840321292 / (2.662867199^1) = 2.193245421 (square root of 1/100th height Great Pyramid)
5.840321292 / (2.662867199^2) = 8.236405564 
((8.236405564 x 5.840321292 = 4.810325478 ht Great Pyramid / 100

Right or wrong, 15552 is an important number – and 780.6853140 may still turn out to be a valid representation of the Mars Synodic Period of ~780 days.

It would be hard to list all the relevant equations discovered since then even though 15552 has received relatively little focus since I first encountered it.

We can add to the list that 15552 /  ht Great Pyramid 481.0325478 ft = 3233.045259 / 100, and that 15552 / Saros Cycle 6585.3211 = 2.361616049, the Ubaid Cubit of the Great Pyramid base (3018.110298 / 1280 =2.361263) to an accuracy of 2.361263 / 2.361616049 = .9998505053 even unadjusted.

We can write 15552 different ways, like 12 x 360 x 360 / 10 or 2 x (60^5) / 10^n. 15552 is 1/2 of 31104, which various researchers or their readers may recognize the significance of. More will no doubt recognize this: 155520 / 6 = 25920, the symbolic (and possibly practical) Precessional Cycle.

Half of 15552 = 77760, and the data from Palenque is trying to make me think we might see something unusual there in the form of 7776 / 10^n as a measure and/or ratio, such references involving whole numbers and particularly larger ones, being seemingly very rare.

The original notes proceed to offer many equations related to the possibility that the proportions of the rooms behind the “Monster Mask” may actually “answer” to 15552, and the possibility of a related number arising from a “Monster Mask” at Hochub (6 x 3 x 6 x 3 x 6 = 1944 = 15552 / 8).

Currently, 15552 / 10^n belongs to a formula used in my tables linking the Lunar Month to the Half Venus Cycle (LM x (15552 / 10^n) = HCV), in the table row that puts the notable Lunar Month approximation 29.52390322 in one of the premiere positions (as the A value), where it presumably belongs.

In spite of this and more, there is still an unsolved mystery afoot – 15552 does not appear in my tables of Mayan calendar number products and their factors. Although 15552 is a nice round number, it looks as if the Maya and other ancient peoples in common calendar practice may have used another similar number, or several, in its place.

(15561 is a factor of: 6586.666666 x 378, 273 x 4332, 2755 x 819, 819 x 4332, 399 x 708; 6939 x 224 = 1554336).

The approximations of the 819 day cycle derived from 15552,

15552 / 18983.99126 = 819.2165593 and 15552 / 18997.72194 = 818.6244671

still continue to show promise, although things are a bit more up in the air again after recently attempting to incorporate representations of 224, 364, 117, and 585 into the workings.

The story of 15552 also crosses paths with a novel and intriguing number,  575.1793153.

It’s what happens when we subtract the projected Great Pyramid apothem from that of the whole

610.7875012 – 35.53417641 = 575.2533247

There actually is a 575.2… number that exists in “Munck’s” math, but the more plausible interpretation seems to be 575.1793153, a curious number that gives some dramatic responses when we may least expect them.

819.2165597 / 575.1793153 = 1.424280286

1.424280286 is one of the Tikal “wonder numbers”, later found at Giza and at Stonehenge.

15552 / 575.1793153 = 2.703852448 = 1 / ((SMMY) / 2)

The Squared Munck Megalithic Yard (SMMY) was probably one of the first numbers discovered at Tikal, by Munck, a discovery that has remained a guiding light in ancient American architectural studies.

At one point, I was almost certain that 5.676792298 would be a feature of Tikal’s “Bat Palace”, after discovering some of the interesting properties of the number.

56767.92298 / 15552 = 365.0200808 / 10^n.

It was truly remarkable to eventually discover that 5.676792298 / 575.1793153 = (Pi^2).

We also know that 56767.92298 is intrinsically related to some of the Great Pyramid’s interior volumes according to my standard model, although this may be a contentious point among various researchers.

We know then that 15552 has various important role to play. The current question is whether it warranted (and whether it received) as place at Palenque.

–Luke Piwalker