Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras

Salamendacious@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 1581 points – Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
iflscience.com

Study math for long enough and you will likely have cursed Pythagoras's name, or said "praise be to Pythagoras" if you're a bit of a fan of triangles.

But while Pythagoras was an important historical figure in the development of mathematics, he did not figure out the equation most associated with him (a2 + b2 = c2). In fact, there is an ancient Babylonian tablet (by the catchy name of IM 67118) which uses the Pythagorean theorem to solve the length of a diagonal inside a rectangle. The tablet, likely used for teaching, dates from 1770 BCE – centuries before Pythagoras was born in around 570 BCE.

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No shit… these are like old Chuck Norris facts:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

the priest of Apollo gave Pythagoras a magic arrow, which he used to fly over long distances and perform ritual purifications

A fragment from Aristotle records that, when a deadly snake bit Pythagoras, he bit it back and killed it.

he once convinced a notoriously destructive bear to swear that it would never harm a living thing again, and that the bear kept its word

Kinda makes you wonder if future archeologists would know the difference between the jokes being jokes about chuck Norris vs us believing he was a god that we worshipped. Maybe that's all mythology is, some running gags that everyone took seriously.

a god that we worshipped

Would they be wrong? What’s the line between idolization and worship?

I would argue praying to them and doing acts in their name. Although that last part could be twisted.