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Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

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Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#171

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

2devnull wrote: post #164
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like he was being figurative. He probably meant that he got ideas while working. Every morning, I get up at 5, and take a 5K walk. During that time, I tend to "triage" the day ahead, and often solve problems that were vexing me, the night before. Part of my walk is around a local high school track. There is a small flock of killdeer birds, that hang out there, and I guess they give me the ideas I have, as…

Cray sounds mildly autistic.

A lot of these folks are.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#172

Post by stainablesteel »

i'm not surprised

basic geometry was probably fundamental to the architecture necessary to make civilizations

i'd bet that as far back as we can find large structure there would probably have been strong understandings of geometry to make them

plus, humans have been around for 200-300k years, what we can find is from ~12k-25k years ago at the very fringe of our investigations. no doubt people have been mathematically capable for longer than they've been able to take full advantage of the concepts they understand

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#173

Post by wishinghand »

darkerside wrote: post #128
dr_dshiv wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know of any ancient sources claiming that Pythagoras killed Hippasus. Seems unlikely to me! In any case, Hippasus was a fascinating figure: “Aristoxenus (Fr. 90 Wehrli = DK I 109. 31 ff.) reports that Hippasus prepared four bronze disks of equal diameters, whose thicknesses were in the given ratios, and it is true that, if free hanging disks of equal diameter are struck, the sound produced by, e.g., a disk ha…

I'm pretty confused. How do you think an average 8 year old would feel?

When I was 8 I would sometimes watch a Disney VHS tape that had Donald Duck exploring stuff like this. The golden ratio, octaves of sound/music, pythagorean theorem etc. I loved it.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#174

Post by User23 »

lynguist wrote: post #125

The mainstream is and was _enamored_ with Ancient Greece. Our Western culture made Ancient Greek into the vocabulary root of our sciences. We have a lineage of philosophy from Ancient Greece to the 19th century. Only in the 19th century with archeology (again a neo-word made from Ancient Greek roots – it suggests to the mainstream that the Ancient Greek had a concept of archaeology, which they obviously didn’t have)…

The Ancient Greeks didn't even think it started with Ancient Greece. Plato believed in Atlantis for example.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#175

Post by lazide »

loa_in_ wrote: post #129
ssener2001 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree.Obtaining this formula by observing is more difficult than obtaining it by proving it. Besides, it is an issue that is already needed in field work. If you have pen, paper and a good number system, it shouldn't be too difficult to find the formula with shapes.

I imagine back then things like number systems and methods of proving were just made up as they go.

Clay tablets and a stylus also less convenient than pen and paper.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#176

Post by fishyjoe »

wishinghand wrote: post #173
darkerside wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty confused. How do you think an average 8 year old would feel?

When I was 8 I would sometimes watch a Disney VHS tape that had Donald Duck exploring stuff like this. The golden ratio, octaves of sound/music, pythagorean theorem etc. I loved it.

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land.

You can find the whole thing on youtube

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#177

Post by PretzelPirate »

the_origami_fox wrote: post #105

For anyone wondering how they got the approximation sqrt(2)=1+24/60+51/60^2+10/60^3. It's based on the simple idea that: Z = (a + b)^2 = (a^2 + (2a+b)*b) => (2a+b)* b Given an initial estimate "a", we need to find the largest "b" such that the term on the left is less than the term on the right. Therefore our estimate will always be slightly less than the actual answer and we can repeat the process to get slightly cl…

Why do you choose b=x/60 for the first iteration? That isn't obvious to me, but 60 must be an obvious choice to be chosen.

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#178

Post by HideousKojima »

somenameforme wrote: post #39
dr_dshiv wrote: post #10

Pythagoras was specifically known for accumulating the wisdom of diverse cultures—supposedly he met Thales, was initiated as Egyptian priest in Hermopolis, spent time in Babylon after being captured, and was initiated into every mystery cult he could. And as a boy on his home island of Samos, he would have been exposed to the building of the largest stone temple in Ancient Greece (to Hera) and the incredible engineer…

Oh how can you skip the most fun tale of them all. [1] Its authenticity is dubious, but there's probably at least parts of truth in it. In a nutshell, Pythagoras started a cult based around numbers, and the pseudo-divine purity of rational numbers - of which everything can be represented. Hippasus, a member of said cult, however managed to compellingly demonstrate that the square root of 2 could not be a rational num…

TIL Terrence Howard is secretly a member of Pythagoras' math cult:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/terrence-howard-th...

"How can it equal one? If one times one equals one that means that two is of no value because one times itself has no effect. One times one equals two because the square root of four is two, so what's the square root of two? Should be one, but we're told its two, and that cannot be."

Re: Pythagorean Theorem found on clay tablet 1k years older than Pythagoras (2009)

#179

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

CommitSyn wrote: post #156
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The relationship between math and spirituality was very strong back then! On Seymour Cray: Another favorite pastime was digging a tunnel under his home; he attributed the secret of his success to "visits by elves" while he worked in the tunnel: "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem." [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray

I'm actually curious if "digging in the tunnel" is a euphemism for using psychedelics, which would have been severely frowned upon at the time. The elves are known for their wisdom in helping you see the world and solve problems in unique ways. https://maps.org/2004/08/08/nobel-prize-genius-crick-was-hig... > FRANCIS CRICK, the Nobel Prize-winning father of modern genetics, was under the influence of LSD when he firs…

DMT is pretty famous for, oddly, inducing hallucinations of Machine Elves in people. Don't discard the building tunnels part though, it is a weirdly popular hobby among the very male-brained.
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