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Australian mathematician discovers applied geometry engraved on 3,700-year-old tablet
Old Babylonian tablet likely used for surveying uses Pythagorean triples at least 1,000 years before Pythagoras
An Australian mathematician has discovered what may be the oldest known example of applied geometry, on a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet.
- Donna Lu
- The Guardian
Known as Si.427, the tablet bears a field plan measuring the boundaries of some land.
The tablet dates from the Old Babylonian period between 1900 and 1600 BCE and was discovered in the late 19th century in what is now Iraq. It had been housed in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum before Dr…
Mansfield and Norman Wildberger, an associate professor at UNSW, had previously identified another…