Australian mathematician discovers applied geometry engraved on 3,700-year-old tablet

[Judi Lynn]

Old Babylonian tablet likely used for surveying uses Pythagorean triples at least 1,000 years before Pythagoras

Donna Lu
@donnadlu
Wed 4 Aug 2021 11.00 EDT



Geometry engravings found on Old Babylonian tablet force re-evaluation of other tablets of the era, with Australian scientist saying it shows the ‘society has reached a particular level of mathematical sophistication’. Photograph: UNSW Sydney
Donna Lu
@donnadlu
Wed 4 Aug 2021 11.00 EDT

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.

Mansfield and Norman Wildberger, an associate professor at UNSW, had previously identified another Babylonian tablet as containing the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table. At the time, they speculated the tablet was likely to have had some practical use, possibly in surveying or construction.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/05/australian-mathematician-discovers-applied-geometry-engraved-on-3700-year-old-tablet

[jaxexpat]

1. It only takes a couple of these precedent shattering discoveries and pretty soon,

whole societies have to re-examine their essential dogmas.....again.

[paleotn]

6. That's science for ya.

What we think we know is good only until the next discovery. Dogma eventually fades away in the light of new evidence. Religion on the other hand.......

[Gore1FL]

2. That is confidence!

I thought I was bold doing math with a pen!

[jaxexpat]

10. Well, they had a cuneiform typewriter buy it weighed over 200,000 shekels.

Took 3 oxen to move the portable model. Stupid ox driven typewriter. Didn't catch on.

[KS Toronado]

3. Looks like Fred Flintstone might have had a hand in this.......

looks like his work, always thought Bedrock was some where in this country, not Iraq.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Pythagoras lost his patents?

Just wow. Anything is possible.

[yardwork]

5. Think about everything we destroyed when we invaded Iraq.

Thousands of objects like this - records of the beginnings of human civilization - blown to smithereens or stolen during W's evil invasion and occupation of a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11.

I will never forgive. Never.

[niyad]

7. Thank you. Was thinking that very thing. Along with, what other amazing, upending

pieces of information are just sitting in vaults, boxes, storage, tc., forgotten ignored dismissed, through bias. I particularly think about it in terms of patriarchal bias against women's culture, but it exists in all areas.

[yardwork]

9. So true. Patriarchy and racism through the millennia.

Pre-Colombian records burned by invaders. Women healers burned. Babylonian records burned.

[jaxexpat]

11. But they're not lost, really. Mr. "Hobby Lobby" bought them to add to his collection.

[yardwork]

12. The ones that were stolen. Many, many more were blown up.

[niyad]

8. Thank you so much for sharing this truly fascinating find.

[MisterNiceKitty]

13. There was some discussion

that the Pythagorean theorem was of Egyptian origin - note sure it was proven though.

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/14/opinion/l-did-egypt-originate-geometry-theorem-164991.html

"The case of the Pythagorean theorem is equally clear. The Babylonians knew the Pythagorean relationship, a + b = c ; the Egyptians knew that a 3,4,5 triangle for which the Pythagorean theorem holds was a right triangle, but theorems, the proof of the relationship, are Hellenic."

[Irish_Dem]

14. How many advanced civilizations have vanished without a trace?

Probably more than we know.

Maybe we will be one of them?