3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet rewrites the history of maths - and shows the Greeks [tr]

UK Telegraph ^ | August 24, 2017 | Sarah Knapton

[C19fan]

If you hated Trig class blame the Babylonians. From what I understand the Babylonians utilized many mathematical concepts and tools in day to day life way before the Greeks and like. The difference is the Greeks did not simply ask how to do something but why.

[Adder]

While I walk like an Egyptian, I blame the Babylonians for a lot of things...its just easy....

[trebb]

Wow - a sine from the past that may impact the future....

[AndyTheBear]

Think you’re going off on a tangent.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

From the original Historia Mathematica article:

[P]erhaps we should view angular trigonometry as a social construct originating from the needs of Seleucid astronomy rather than a necessary and intrinsic aspect of geometry.

Perhaps not. Who in their right mind ever insisted that classical trigonometry was the only correct way to express the relationships between angles and the lengths of triangles in Euclidean geometry? At best a strawman argument. Any sentient person should be able to see this. The Roman alphabet is not the only way to express the spoken word, but no one is in a hurry to replace it with something better, at least not yet.

[dljordan]

I thought we stole math from the Africans.

[Dixie Yooper]

How much of this knowledge did the current population retain?

[Does so]

The Greeks still don’t understand math in this decade. ;)

[Does so]

Iraq's museums were sacked. The Babylonians undoubtedly had slaves.

In the present US climate, I wonder if the tablet is safe at Columbia?

[PIF]

Duplicate post. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3580421/posts?page=1

[misanthrope]

I refuse to cosine a loan.....

[Teacher317]

Will one of you cosine on this loan for me?

(Sorry, it was the best I could do with what was left! LOL)

[Teacher317]

And I was even beaten to it by 45 seconds... *sigh*

[LibWhacker]

“This is a rare example of the ancient world teaching us something new.”

So say the same leftists who brought us the new math and ruined the mathematical education of two generations American children. Now, no doubt, they will want to begin teaching third graders base-60 math immediately because they are in thrall to everything non-Western, not because base-60 is better than base-10 (which it is not), but because they hate Western civilization and are out to prove it inferior to every other civilization that has ever existed.

[MarvinStinson]

But Obama and and the US media say the muslims invented algebra.

[mohammed came along in 500 AD]

[mistfree]

I thought we stole math from the Africans.

Please give it back to them, they’re struggling without it.

[HombreSecreto]

How about this?

I don’t go out in the sine, cos I don’t tan, I burn...

[spintreebob]

Roman alphabet is not the only way to express the spoken word, but no one is in a hurry to replace it with something better, at least not yet.

Then what are all these icons and emoticons that I don’t understand?

[jalisco555]

Will people stop with the puns for a secant?

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

You could have taken another angle.