Posted on 01/28/2016 2:56:35 PM PST by BenLurkin
Mathieu Ossendrijver of Humboldt University in Berlin found the tablet while combing through the collections at the British Museum. The written record gives instructions for estimating the area under a curve by finding the area of trapezoids drawn underneath. Using those calculations, the tablet shows how to find the distance Jupiter has traveled in a given interval of time. Until now, this kind of use of trapezoids wasn't known to exist before the 14th century.
...
By 400 B.C. Babylonian astronomers had worked out a coordinate system using the ecliptic, the region of the sky the sun and planets move through, Ossendrijver says. They even invented the use of degrees as 360 fractions of a circle based on their sexagesimal, or base 60, counting system. What wasn't clear was whether the Babylonians had a concept of objects in abstract mathematical space.
The trapezoid method involves learning the rate at which Jupiter moves and then plotting the planet's speed against a set number of days on an x-y graph. The result should be a curve on the graph. Figuring out the area of trapezoids under this curve gives a reasonable approximation of how many degrees the planet has moved in a given period.
...
Babylonian tablets that hinted at this ability had been found before...
In his own forays into the British Museum, Ossendrijver wasn't looking for evidence of new mathematics, just for interesting astronomical tablets. Some, he says, have been sitting in the museum for decades waiting for translation.
Ultimately he found three more with evidence for trapezoid-based calculations, including the one that clearly shows the mathematical feat of applying the technique to observations of Jupiter. All five tablets are described in Ossendrijver's study, appearing this week in Science.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
I am constantly amazed at hos stupid we think our ancestors were, and yet they were the ones who were brilliant enough to lay the very foundations of all that we know as modern math and modern science.
We have the privilege of building on a well established foundation and they figured this stuff out from almost nothing.
If there are any true geniuses left, it’s not very obvious.
Our ancestors were stupid:
1) They were born before 1985.
2) They did not live in Silicon Valley
3) They did not graduate from Stanford
4) They were not a founder for a tech company valued by VC’s at $100m
The basis of integral calculus.
Actually the Babylonians invented geometry in order to design the world`s first bra because the King of Babylon, Nevercouldnecker, was constantly nagged by the Queen of Babylon about the HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON:’ viz
“The written record gives instructions for estimating the area under TWO curves by finding the area of trapezoids drawn underneath.” If the areas can be solved, then the volumes can be solved by Solid Trigonometry, [also invented by the Babylonians] which can be used to find the volume of the TWO spherical polygons, and thus the weight thereof; ergo, the load-bearing parameters for support of the two spherical polygons thereof can be deduced.
Don’t the pyramids of Giza predate this by millennia?
What went on in Babylon, stayed in Babylon
At least for a while
Just been reading about gobeckli Tepi and. It seems we don’t even know who were our ancestors but these folks were building massive and ornately laid out shrines before agriculture and the wheel were invented?
Back to the drawing board to trace human civilization
Pyramids may be 2,500 BC or older.
Maybe 10,000 BC if they were designed for astrological purposes and only repurposed later as tombs
Whoever designed the Great Pyramid base perimeter to correlate to the equatorial circumference of the earth, and the height to correlate by the same formula to the polar circumference of the earth, knew a bit about geometry not to mention the dimensions of the earth
That’s OK.
Keith Richards will still be around and playing guitar.
Clay tablets, papyrus to write on with quill pens or scratching with a stick.
Just think what these guys could have done with the tools we have today.
Some people have the natural talent. 17 year old kid gets perfect score in calculus
http://remezcla.com/culture/cedric-argueta-perfect-ap-calculus-score/
The only known and documented Islamic contribution to the world is the cellphone bomb invented by a Palestinian.
Neat!
That is a Darwinian view, that old is primitive, and new is advanced. It is a mostly linear viewpoint when it comes to progress for all things, humanity included. "Lost Arts" are mostly confined to the realm of fiction by that.
I seriously believe there have been civilizations which had more advanced technical skills than we give them credit for.
We have the privilege of building on a well established foundation and they figured this stuff out from almost nothing.
Right. The first fellow who realized the sun set farther north (or south, down under) at midsummer than any other time, and recognized that for the solstice and then applied it, the first to realize plants came from seeds, and that water was needed were the pioneers of agriculture.
The first boat, sailboat, the wheel, all tremendous milestones, and the basic ideas of leverage, mechanical advantage, gears, pulleys, and inclined planes, all blazed a trail for the superhighways which followed.
If there are any true geniuses left, it’s not very obvious.
If so, they were likely booted form grad school for not sucking up to the professors or some heresy against accepted 'fact'.
“If there hadn’t been women we’d still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.â€
― Orson Welles
Yep. She kept asking him, "How's it hanging?"
That's where that phrase came from.
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