Science

pokerfan

(27,677 posts)

17. They certainly got the ball rolling

Wed May 23, 2012, 04:40 AM

May 2012

and came up with a value of 3.125 or 25/8.

The ancient Babylonians generally calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius (pi=3), but one Old Babylonian tablet (from ca. 1900-1680 BCE) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi.

http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/pi.html

A good book on the subject is Beckmann's History of Pi is terrific and includes the black hole of progress in pi (and most everything else) from the Roman Empire to the Renaissance in a chapter aptly called 'Night.'

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Numberphile: '60' [View all] pokerfan May 2012 OP

very cool! here's a nice discussion of this tablet Blues Heron May 2012 #1

very cool... ProdigalJunkMail May 2012 #2

I suppose that this proves that Babylonians had 60 fingers Orrex May 2012 #3

I'm not terribly impressed by their ability to count to 60 on two hands. laconicsax May 2012 #4

I can count 1023 using two hands pokerfan May 2012 #5

I can multiply any two numbers with two hands... laconicsax May 2012 #6

multiplication is repeated addition... pokerfan May 2012 #7

I had a good time looking up tetration last night when I read that one. laconicsax May 2012 #8

If a 4-shot espresso is a 'quad'. daaron May 2012 #9

I think it's called "rocket fuel" laconicsax May 2012 #13

I like it a lot, it had a great beat and I can dance to it, I'll give it a 59. marble falls May 2012 #10

That's Numberwang! htuttle May 2012 #11

/golfclap FreeBC May 2012 #14

6 is the product of the two smallest prime numbers. daaron May 2012 #12

It all means something. napoleon_in_rags May 2012 #16

Yes. It all means something. daaron May 2012 #18

But since we don't understand the question... FiveGoodMen May 2012 #19

The Information Age was born when meaning was discarded. napoleon_in_rags May 2012 #20

They did great work with pi too. napoleon_in_rags May 2012 #15

They certainly got the ball rolling pokerfan May 2012 #17