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Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

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Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#21

Post by stonogo »

ganfortran wrote: post #12
lacampbell wrote: post #4

Any ideas of it's authentic? China is hyper nationalist so I'm initially skeptical. Might be as fictitous as their GDP figures or sovereignty over Taiwan.

> hyper nationalist Says Americans, biggest lovers on this planet for their own national flag. /s

Swing and a miss.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#22

Post by platz »

dmoy wrote: post #17
elevensies wrote: post #11

So if I'm understanding correctly, this is evidence that about 300 years after the death of Pythagoras, his proof "travelled" over the silk road to China?

Or it was independently recreated.

It could've been used without being proved also

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#23

Post by elastic_church »

lacampbell wrote: post #4

Any ideas of it's authentic? China is hyper nationalist so I'm initially skeptical. Might be as fictitous as their GDP figures or sovereignty over Taiwan.

When you want to like Taiwan more but then notice their view of Tibet is just as twisted

District 13

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#24

Post by matt_wulfeck »

elevensies wrote: post #11

So if I'm understanding correctly, this is evidence that about 300 years after the death of Pythagoras, his proof "travelled" over the silk road to China?

I was thinking the same thing. It's easy to forget just how much the ancient Greeks accomplished 2,500 years ago.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#25

Post by kobeya »

jacobolus wrote: post #18
elevensies wrote: post #11

So if I'm understanding correctly, this is evidence that about 300 years after the death of Pythagoras, his proof "travelled" over the silk road to China?

There’s evidence that the “Pythagorean Theorem” was known in Mesopotamia a millennium before Pythagoras. It was likely widely known in the ancient world. The Greeks wrote their mathematical ideas in a different way than other cultures, so the answers to these questions aren’t completely clear-cut.

But was the theorem proved?

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#26

Post by kobeya »

lacampbell wrote: post #2

Wouldn't something from that period be written with seal script? That script looks like modern Han characters with an archaic font - it's completely readable.

Seal script is significantly older than that. 2100 years ago is squarely in the middle of the Han dynasty, after the square script we are familiar with was already standardized.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#27

Post by kobeya »

yeukhon wrote: post #6
lacampbell wrote: post #4

Any ideas of it's authentic? China is hyper nationalist so I'm initially skeptical. Might be as fictitous as their GDP figures or sovereignty over Taiwan.

> sovereignty over Taiwan This is the claim that China and Taiwan should reunite since the PRC drove the Nationalist Party out of mainland China. It isn't fictitious, it's merely a political wish to merge the two from the PRC side. Similarly, some Nationalists in Taiwan are happy to take back mainland China, as much as the country is divided on whether Taiwan should remain as it is, or should declare its full indepen…

The GP is talking about the straight-faced lie that the PRC peddles in international circles that Taiwan is a province of the mainland government. It is the international equivalent of putting their hands on their ears and shouting "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!", and about as legitimate as Mexico's claim to Texas.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#28

Post by my_first_acct »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #14
yeukhon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sovereignty over Taiwan This is the claim that China and Taiwan should reunite since the PRC drove the Nationalist Party out of mainland China. It isn't fictitious, it's merely a political wish to merge the two from the PRC side. Similarly, some Nationalists in Taiwan are happy to take back mainland China, as much as the country is divided on whether Taiwan should remain as it is, or should declare its full indepen…

Doesn't the PRC's claim on Taiwan boil down to a combination of right-of-conquest ("Taiwan belonged to the Republic of China, we beat up the Republic of China, therefore Taiwan is ours") and Just Because? ("The PRC is the only legitimate Chinese government because the PRC says so") I'm very skeptical of purely historical claims of sovereignty. If the people of Taiwan legitimately vote to join the PRC, that's their ri…

Descriptions of all possible points of view are presented in the Wikipedia article "Political status of Taiwan" [1]. Among these is the (fringe) theory that based on various post-WWII treaties, the US currently holds sovereignty over Taiwan [2] (a view not endorsed by the US government, by the way).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_status_of_Taiwan#Arg...

Re: Pythagorean Theorem proof in a 2100 year old Chinese book

#30

Post by kccqzy »

elevensies wrote: post #11

So if I'm understanding correctly, this is evidence that about 300 years after the death of Pythagoras, his proof "travelled" over the silk road to China?

From Wikipedia:

> Mesopotamian, Indian and Chinese mathematicians all discovered the theorem independently and, in some cases, provided proofs for special cases.

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