A team of mathematicians have studied a 3,700 years old Babylonian clay tablet and concluded that it is a trigonometric table of right angle triangles.
The article also claims that the clay tablet is more accurate than modern tables, but it is unclear if it is because of the base-60 calculations, or because of the - for us - novel trigonometry.
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“The huge mystery, until now, was its purpose – why the ancient scribes carried out the complex task of generating and sorting the numbers on the tablet. Our research reveals that Plimpton 322 describes the shapes of right-angle triangles using a novel kind of trigonometry based on ratios, not angles and circles. It is a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undoubted genius. |
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2wPn24O
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