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3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths - and shows the Greeks did not...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/24/3700-year-old-babylonian-tablet-rewrites-history-maths-could/ ^ | 24 August 2017 • 7:00pm | Sarah Knapton, Science Editor

Posted on 08/24/2017 7:42:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin

The tablet, known as Plimpton 332, was discovered in the early 1900s...

Babylonian mathematics used a base 60, or sexagesimal system, rather than the 10 which is used today. Because 60 is far easier to divide by three, experts studying the tablet, found that the calculations are far more accurate.

...

Hipparchus, who lived around 120BC, has long been regarded as the father of trigonometry, with his ‘table of chords’ on a circle considered the oldest trigonometric table.

A trigonometric table allows a user to determine two unknown ratios of a right-angled triangle using just one known ratio. But the tablet is far older than Hipparchus, demonstrating that the Babylonians were already well advanced in complex mathematics far earlier.

...

The 15 rows on the tablet describe a sequence of 15 right-angle triangles, which are steadily decreasing in inclination.

The left-hand edge of the tablet is broken but the researchers believe t there were originally six columns and that the tablet was meant to be completed with 38 rows.

“Plimpton 322 was a powerful tool that could have been used for surveying fields or making architectural calculations to build palaces, temples or step pyramids,” added Dr Mansfield.

The new study is published in Historia Mathematica, the official journal of the International Commission on the History of Mathematics.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science
KEYWORDS: 60; ancientmath; babylonian; babylonians; base60; cuneiform; edgarbanks; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; greeks; history; math; plimpton332; sexagesimal; sexagesimalsystem; trig; trigonometry
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1 posted on 08/24/2017 7:42:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

2+2=222


2 posted on 08/24/2017 7:47:07 PM PDT by Larry381 (Gramen artificiosum odi)
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To: BenLurkin

All we can know is what we don’t know.

The Library at Alexandria was wiped out. How much ancient knowledge was destroyed?


3 posted on 08/24/2017 7:47:26 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: Larry381

Those 2s breed like rabbits


4 posted on 08/24/2017 7:48:13 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
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To: BenLurkin

Bookmark


5 posted on 08/24/2017 7:49:37 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: a fool in paradise

Whp wiped out the LaA?


6 posted on 08/24/2017 7:51:00 PM PDT by Paladin2 (No spelchk nor wrong word auto substition on mobile dev. Please be intelligent and deal with it....)
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To: BenLurkin

Al Sharpton’s family is from Babylonia, donchaknow. They invented jet engines, airplanes, the alphabet, chemistry and lots of other stuff. They were gazillionaires but the white man took it all away!


7 posted on 08/24/2017 7:52:56 PM PDT by Rembrandt
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To: BenLurkin
The sexagesimal system never made much sense for people who had five fingers on each hand. But if the Sumerians were taught math by ET visitors who had six fingers on each hand...
8 posted on 08/24/2017 7:59:40 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon.)
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To: Publius

I guess apparently a sexagesimal system does makes sense — if someone is trying to build an accurate trigonometric table. Even without aliens.


9 posted on 08/24/2017 8:02:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Rembrandt

Done stoled it right out they heads, they did, all that knowledge.


10 posted on 08/24/2017 8:04:47 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: BenLurkin
Dr. Mansfield sets the Gaydar to 11....


11 posted on 08/24/2017 8:05:29 PM PDT by Enchante
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To: Rembrandt

YUP, and Al Sharpton’s ancestors invented the Internet 3500 years ago.... the white man stole it and hid it until deciding to take credit for it and make all the money.


12 posted on 08/24/2017 8:07:08 PM PDT by Enchante
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To: Enchante

Something tells me that Dr. Mansfield was born with a hoo-hoo, regardless of whatever might be residing in place of it now.


13 posted on 08/24/2017 8:07:36 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry

“Done stoled it right out they heads, they did, all that knowledge.”

An dat be true!


14 posted on 08/24/2017 8:08:06 PM PDT by Rembrandt
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To: BenLurkin

I want to come back and read through this when I am not completely burnt out.


15 posted on 08/24/2017 8:09:01 PM PDT by Mr. Dough (Who was the greater military man, General Tso or Col. Sanders?)
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To: BenLurkin
Link to the original paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315086017300691
16 posted on 08/24/2017 8:13:55 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (The Whig Party died when it fled the great fight of its century. Ditto for the Republicans now.)
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To: BenLurkin

IMO it was recreated by the Greeks.

This is an interesting view:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-25/babylonian-tablet-unlocks-simpler-trigonometry-mathematics/8841368
“ “This gives us a different way of looking at trigonometry. One that’s really just passed on ratios. And the beautiful thing about it is that it’s much simpler,” Dr Mansfield told AM.
“It only involves ratios, you don’t need to study trigonometry through angles: sin, cosx, tan and irrational numbers. You can do it with just ratios.” “


17 posted on 08/24/2017 8:25:50 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: BenLurkin
Babylonian mathematics used a base 60, or sexagesimal system, rather than the 10 which is used today. Because 60 is far easier to divide by three, experts studying the tablet, found that the calculations are far more accurate.

This makes no logical sense. Calculations of what are more accurate? And as long as one is using integers, there is always a point at which dividing by three leads to an indefinable number, no matter what the starting number is. Now, if one chooses to use other types of numbers--for instance, fractions--many more opportunities for accurate calculations come up. And a whole lot of messiness can be avoided by using pi in one's calculations.

18 posted on 08/24/2017 8:33:11 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: Publius

>> The sexagesimal system never made much sense for people who had five fingers on each hand. But if the Sumerians were taught math by ET visitors who had six fingers on each hand...

60/5 = 12
360/60 = 6
60/12 = 5

They did have a logic to the system, but clearly the metric system turned out to be much more comprehensible.

Here’s more: https://youtu.be/R9m2jck1f90

There are tons of great information on the history of mathematics at your fingertips. I found this book extremely awesome, A History Of Pi by Petr Beckmann - https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=10jABQAAQBAJ.


19 posted on 08/24/2017 8:34:50 PM PDT by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: exDemMom

Well 60 has many more factors than 10 and it made calculations easier for a lot of common calculations. That is the reason a clock has 60 minutes and why we sell in units of 12 (a dozen) and a circle has 360 degrees.


20 posted on 08/24/2017 8:38:23 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie
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