08-04-2021, 08:40 PM
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021...old-tablet
(Source: UWSW Sydney / Above article)
An Australian mathematician has discovered what may be the oldest known example of applied geometry, on a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet.
Known as Si.427, the tablet bears a field plan measuring the boundaries of some land.
The tablet dates from the Old Babylonian period between 1900 and 1600 BCE and was discovered in the late 19th century in what is now Iraq. It had been housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum before Dr Daniel Mansfield from the University of New South Wales tracked it down.
That tablet, Plimpton 322, described right-angle triangles using Pythagorean triples: three whole numbers in which the sum of the squares of the first two equals the square of the third – for example, 32 + 42 = 52.
Si.427 contains three Pythagorean triples: 3, 4, 5; 8, 15, 17; and 5, 12, 13.
Wow, so it looks like the ancient Babylonians had some idea of what Pythagoras' Theorem was . But is it something that they just measured and observed to be true - or, did they have a mathematical proof of it? The ancient Greeks had a proof (Euclid published one in Elements), but I'm not sure whether the Babylonians did .
Either way, it's cool to see that they were aware of this mathematical fact, and applying it within their society!
(Source: UWSW Sydney / Above article)
An Australian mathematician has discovered what may be the oldest known example of applied geometry, on a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet.
Known as Si.427, the tablet bears a field plan measuring the boundaries of some land.
The tablet dates from the Old Babylonian period between 1900 and 1600 BCE and was discovered in the late 19th century in what is now Iraq. It had been housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum before Dr Daniel Mansfield from the University of New South Wales tracked it down.
That tablet, Plimpton 322, described right-angle triangles using Pythagorean triples: three whole numbers in which the sum of the squares of the first two equals the square of the third – for example, 32 + 42 = 52.
Si.427 contains three Pythagorean triples: 3, 4, 5; 8, 15, 17; and 5, 12, 13.
Wow, so it looks like the ancient Babylonians had some idea of what Pythagoras' Theorem was . But is it something that they just measured and observed to be true - or, did they have a mathematical proof of it? The ancient Greeks had a proof (Euclid published one in Elements), but I'm not sure whether the Babylonians did .
Either way, it's cool to see that they were aware of this mathematical fact, and applying it within their society!
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