Is documented after the Macedonian conquests, but not earlier. The interaction between the Babylonian and Greek cultures They do not mention any Babylonian influence. Greek historians (of the Hellenistic period) themselves mention the influence of Egyptians, though this has no confirmation in modern research on the history of mathematics. But this is not what the Pythagorean theorem says!Ībout the influence of Babylonians on the early Greek mathematicians there is no evidence. It is also likely that they knew that the triangle with such sides has a right angle opposite to Perhaps they also knew how to find all solutions. Type the number of Babylonian numerals you want to convert in the text box, to see the results in the table. The notion of a "theorem" is a Greek invention, and there is absolutely no evidence that any other culture invented it independently.īabylonians indeed discovered many integer triples, solutions of the Diophantine equation x 2 + y 2 = z 2. Babylonian numerals (Languages), numerals. This was a unique discovery, and no trace of it exists in any other culture. The major contribution of the Greeks was that "there are statements (which they called theorems) which can be PROVEN". He may have done (perhaps via Egypt), but we have no evidence of this.Īs far as we know, Babylonians had no Pythagorean theorem and no theorems at all whatsoever. That is not to say that Pythagoras didn't know about Babylonian mathematics. There is a discussion of the evidence from the tablets described above on the page Pythagoras's theorem in Babylonian mathematics from the History of Mathematics archive of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews.Īny evidence of Pythagoras deriving his work from Babylonian mathematics? We have evidence for the Babylonians using the concepts in particular cases, but no evidence for a general rule or formal proof. However, none of this was presented in the form of a 'theorem'. (For more detail, see the page Pythagoras's theorem in Babylonian mathematics from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, cited below)Įxcavated in 1936, and published by E.F Bruin in 1950 ( Quelques textes mathématiques de la mission de Suse), this shows a problem calculating the radius of a circle through the vertices of an isosceles triangle.ĭiscovered in an excavation close to Baghdad in 1962, and dating to the reign of Ibalpiel II of Eshunna (c 1750 BCE), this deals with calculating the dimensions of a rectangle where the area & diagonal are known. Not only does this show an understanding of what we call ' Pythagoras's theorem', it also shows that the ancient Babylonians knew a pretty good approximation to the value of √2. Across the centre on the diagonal we see the numbers '1, 24, 51, 10' and '42, 25, 35' (also in Babylonian numerals). One side of the square is labelled '30' (in Babylonian numerals, base 60). This has a diagram of a square with diagonals. In addition to the Plimpton 322 tablet we have: … lists two of the three numbers in what are now called Pythagorean triples, i.e., integers a, b, and c satisfying a 2 + b 2 = c 2 Is there any other evidence of this mathematical concept existing in Babylon before Pythagoras?Īs Wikipedia observes, the Plimpton 322 tablet
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