So Pythagoras likely didn't even formulate the theorem - he was more into numerology and only cared about sum of squares triplets, not the results about right triangles. On the other hand, we have strong evidence that the Babylonians understood and applied the "Pythagorean" theorem long before Pythagoras lived. Additionally, the first recorded explicit statement of the theorem is actually by the Indian writer Baudhay…
The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
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Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe sites like these do a disservice to the ancient knowledge of Hindu people. There were many important discoveries, some unknown to the West for centuries, and still not having enough exposure (when you read math books, they start with Greeks, then maybe they gloss a bit over al-Khwarizmi and then jump right into the 17th century to all big names, as if nothing was happening for over a thousand years - well,…
Peter kingsley talks about this in both reality and a story that will pierce where you dive deep into the hidden connection between Pythagoreans and mystical traditions leading back to the mountains of Tibet. The teachings of Falan Dafa also discusses this claiming that the earth and human civilizations has gone through cycles of destruction and renewal with the last period occuring in the time of the ice age where a…
I don't think you need big cycles of destruction and renewal like those guys claims.
Perfect example was what happened in Europe when the western roman empire disintegrated.
The whole knowledge transfer chain from master to student got disrupted. So much so that the institutional knowledge base got eroded and people forgot how to do/maintain products. Maybe because you a cluster of smaller empires no one could finance those prestige projects, without those big projects the knowledge transfer chain will also be disrupted.
This me just thinking up loud and accepting the shit I learned 10~15 years ago and haven't used in a long time have simple been forgotten. Human memory is extremely fragile, so the invention of paper must have been super important to keep those knowledge transfer chain going over the millennia.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#43An uncomfortably large percentage of our population doesn’t understand the theorem, no matter what it’s called. But sure, let’s quibble about the name.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#44copied/stolen from India/Hindus
Downvoting your post. Here on HN, we believe all worthwhile discoveries were made by white people plus a handful of races whose markets we're trying hard to break into.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#45So Pythagoras likely didn't even formulate the theorem - he was more into numerology and only cared about sum of squares triplets, not the results about right triangles. On the other hand, we have strong evidence that the Babylonians understood and applied the "Pythagorean" theorem long before Pythagoras lived. Additionally, the first recorded explicit statement of the theorem is actually by the Indian writer Baudhay…
Colonized Indians need to take control of their history like the Chinese did. Otherwise the appropriators will continue to have a field day.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#46Next up: the shocking discovery of a Vedic interpretation of quantum chromodynamics ;) https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/vedic_science/quantum-mech...
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Things get named after the person who popularized something, not generally after the first to discover it. It's called the Pythagorean theorem because that's where western people who called it that learned it from, the other things being unknown to them.
Explaining why a misnomer came about isn't an argument for why we should continue to perpetuate it.
yeah the babylonians are still a little sore about this misattribution
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#48I don't know if it's true but we were always taught in the History of Maths course at Cambridge[1] that Pythagoras did not exist, or at least there was no evidence of a specific person called Pythagoras. Further if you followed the footnotes in most any research on the subject (especially claims that the Egyptians or Babylonians knew the theorem) you almost always end up at a loose end. [1] https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/…
For what it's worth Wikipedia has him as a real person living 570 – c. 495 BC, son of Mnesarchus, a gem-engraver on the island of Samos, who travelled to Croton about 530 BC and set up some kind of school there.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The earliest known proof of Pythagorean theorem is due to Euclid. It is strange at all that any credit is attributed to Pythagoras, since Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese all had discovered this [1]. And Pythagoras did not prove his theorem, to the best of our knowledge. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem#History
How would one discover the Pythagorean theorem without having a proof?
You could draw a right angle triangle and notice that the squares match without being able to prove that.
Re: The Babylonians used Pythagorean ideas long before Pythagoras
#50An uncomfortably large percentage of our population doesn’t understand the theorem, no matter what it’s called. But sure, let’s quibble about the name.
It’s important because otherwise you keep getting the “white people made everything” argument.