Crop Circle at
North Down, Wiltshire
reported July 6, 2003

The number of small rings in each of the 11 circles are: 17, 25, 28, 34, 42, 48, 50, 57, 64, 60 and 74 - making a total of 499. Do these figures make any sense? Not to me. There is a relationship between some of the figures, like 17 and 34 (2 x 17), 25 and 50 (2 x 25), 28 (4 x 7) and 42 (6 x 7). But among the otherwise meaningless numbers, these don't mean anything, do they? Of course I'm not the mathematician and I might not have the eye for the true meaning of the numbers. So please let me know if you do!

Let's just suppose this design was executed from the ground (possibly by people, yes). If you wanted to make it really easy, you would not plan the number of the small rings in advance. You would lay down the central circle and the 11 rings around it and then just start creating those little doughnuts on the rings. If you did it without any measurement, you would expect the distance between each doughnut to vary. Especially there should be an inconsistency at one point, where you finish the large ring - you are likely to be left either with too much or too little space for your final doughnut:

In the image above, you can see how there's a large gap between two little rings (1). On the second row, there are three circles squeezed together (2). On the third and fourth row, there is great variety in the distance between circles (3a, 3b, 4a, 4b). According to the close up shots I've seen, the stems were not laid down very neatly either - which again indicates that the crop was laid down with brute force.

If the numbers don't make much sense, how about the geometrical ratios:

The proportional ratios between the central circle, the circle enclosing the 11 rings and the entire formation are 2 / 10 / 11. Since there are 11 rings and 2 is the numerological equal to 11 (1+1=2), there is some logic here. However, it is not anything ingenius and wouldn't require complex measurements to execute on the field.

Presuming it WAS made by people, how long would it take from a group of, say, 3 people? Stomping down the path for each of the 13 large circles shouldn't take more than 10 minutes average. Considering that while one person stands in the middle holding the other end of the tape/string, two other guys can walk at the other end, so it's 10 minutes for just a half circle. That makes slightly more than 2 hours for all the circles.

To make one small ring, about 1 meter in diameter, certainly only takes some 20 sec with a stomper board. Let's make that 30 sec anyway. That means 120 in one hour. For two people it would then require 499 / 120 / 2 = 2,1 hours. Meanwhile, the third guy can flatten the central circle and the large wide ring.

The whole process would hence take no more than 4,5 hours. If you think my calculations are too tight, just add 2 or 3 more workers and an hour or two; it would still be within 6 hours and 6 people.

Do these arguments prove this particular crop circle was manmade? Of course not. Only that it COULD be manmade, considering the geometry, size and quality. Also, there is no sign of such geometrical wittiness, as can be seen in so many other formations. Or is there...? It's not the end of the story yet.

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