Ben Rolfe 🌳 on Nostr: I mentioned Egypt because that's where Pythagoras reportedly learnt it, but from what ...
I mentioned Egypt because that's where Pythagoras reportedly learnt it, but from what little scraps of evidence we have that survived to this day, mathematicians of the region had known the relationship for a really long time (and there was a bunch more communication and travel than many tend to assume)
Builders use a 3,4,5 rope to get a right angle because why would you use a bigger one for that purpose? But the biggest triangle on the Babylonian Plimpton 322 tablet, from about 1800BCE is 12709, (13500), 18541. Pretty sure they didn't figure that out with a bit of rope!
The Plimptom 322 wikipedia article contains a discussion of two techniques that have been proposed, based on the columns of the tablet, for what calculation technique was used. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimpton_322
There's no reason to assume it's the biggest triple they calculated - it's just the biggest of 15 on a scrap of note-clay we happened to find, 4000 years after someone popped it away and went for a beer.
Builders use a 3,4,5 rope to get a right angle because why would you use a bigger one for that purpose? But the biggest triangle on the Babylonian Plimpton 322 tablet, from about 1800BCE is 12709, (13500), 18541. Pretty sure they didn't figure that out with a bit of rope!
The Plimptom 322 wikipedia article contains a discussion of two techniques that have been proposed, based on the columns of the tablet, for what calculation technique was used. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimpton_322
There's no reason to assume it's the biggest triple they calculated - it's just the biggest of 15 on a scrap of note-clay we happened to find, 4000 years after someone popped it away and went for a beer.