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Australian mathematician discovers applied geometry engraved on 3,700-year-old tablet

Old Babylonian tablet likely used for surveying uses Pythagorean triples at least 1,000 years before Pythagoras

[theguardian.com]

FearlessFly 9 Aug 4
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Interesting and fun. Although it could be slightly misleading, since it has always been well known that people knew some of the Pythagorean tripes long before Pythagoras. One the 3,4,5 triangle was even called the Egyptian, since it was widely used by the ancient Egyptians.

What Pythagoras, ( If he existed, since he is rather like Jesus, in that we can not be certain about him or his history.) gets the credit for, is seeing the rule which connected them all and inventing the formula that enabled an infinite number of them to be created at will.

3

60 has 10 factors: 30,20,15,12,10,6,5,4,3 and 2.
This means can do a lot of division in base 60 without dealing with decimals.
10 has 2 factors: 5 and 2.
60/3=20, but 10/3 is 3.33, which the Babylonians couldn't handle.

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