Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras : science@beehaw.org

Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras (www.iflscience.com)

submitted 2 years ago by Bebo@literature.cafe to c/science@beehaw.org

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A Babylonian tablet from around 1770 BC uses principles of the Pythagorean theorem, suggesting ancient Babylonians discovered it centuries before the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras for whom it's named.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Basically nothing survived the millennia. The fact that so many Greek philosophers are known probably has more to do with the Greek->Roman->Medieval->Modern preservation chain than any special brilliance of the Greeks.

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[–] kibiz0r@midwest.social 22 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Yep. History is written by the victors. And Western textbooks are full of Greek names. But when it comes to Eastern contributions..? Eh, let’s just call it the “Chinese Remainder Theorem”. They don’t get names.

It paints a real strange picture.

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[–] magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

In France most curricula go one step further and call it "the Chinese theorem". Talk about internalised racism.

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[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Internalized? I dont think you are using that correctly.

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[–] renard_roux@beehaw.org 7 points 2 years ago

Institutionalized maybe?

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Anything not preserved on stone or metal will be lost eventually.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 2 years ago

Well, copying extends important things a bit; I don't think there's any original Aristotle copies. It's really easy now, so last time someone asked about future preservation on AskHistorians the experts were pretty positive on the outlook.

You can buy stone-like optical disks that should last forever once burned, if you want to make a time capsule.

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[–] Primarily0617@kbin.social 43 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

it's not the fact that A^2 + B^2 = C^2 that's important, it's the proof

there's been evidence for ages that previous civilizations used it

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[–] Spzi@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Even his role regarding the proof seems unclear. It was interesting to browse the Wiki articles about this theorem's history. Could be him, or one of his students, or neither.

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[–] renard_roux@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

Highly relevant Family Guy clip 😅

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[–] Haus@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Didgdingding! /thread

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[–] casmael@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago

I’m so excited for the next round of thread. Who will proof of Pythagorean theorem fight this time?

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[–] koreth@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago

The paper (linked from the article) has a photo of the actual tablet in question, which was apparently discovered circa 1900.

[–] iMastari@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

Pythagoras: "I made this."

[–] ikanreed@mastodon.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

@Bebo There's been evidence for a long time that pythagoras was more cult-leader than mathematician, and his cult falsely attributed lots of things to him.

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[–] Bebo@literature.cafe [S] 3 points 2 years ago

I actually remember watching a video about this on youtube, that Pythagoras was a sort of cult leader more than anything. So I found it quite interesting when I came across this article about the Babylonian tablet.

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