Mathematical secrets of ancient tablet unlocked after nearly a century of study
Original Post: www.theguardian.com Dating from 1,000 years before Pythagoras’s theorem, the Babylonian clay tablet is a trigonometric table more accurate than any today, say researchers Mathematician Dr Daniel Mansfield with the Plimpton 322 tablet. Photograph: UNSW/Andrew Kelly Shares 46,456 Comments 1,329 Maev Kennedy Thursday 24 August 2017 14.00 EDT Last modified on Thursday 24 August 2017 17.00 EDT At least 1,000 years before the Greek mathematician Pythagoras looked at a right angled triangle and worked out that the square of the longest side is always equal to the sum of the squares of the other two, an unknown Babylonian genius took a clay tablet and a reed pen and marked out not just the same theorem, but a series of trigonometry tables which scientists claim are more accurate than any available today. The 3,700-year-old broken clay tablet survives in the collections of Columbia University, and scientists now believe they have cracked its…