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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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[-] GCostanzaStepOnMe@feddit.de 185 points 9 months ago

Ah yes the Claytablorean Theorem

[-] Che_Donkey@lemmy.ml 51 points 9 months ago

Are you saying that IM67118 Theorem is not recognized?

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 26 points 9 months ago

Recognized or not, I will be wondering if Pythagoras was actually the Edison of his time....

[-] elscallr@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

I have no doubt he discovered it independently and just knew better how to articulate its importance.

[-] NucleusAdumbens@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

According to the article, the theorem was named for him out of respect for starting a school-society thing whose members in turn developed & popularized the theorem. So you should perhaps have at least some doubt

[-] elscallr@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

Well ok I'll give a lil doubt.

[-] Pyro@programming.dev 12 points 9 months ago

Mathematicians can have a lil doubt, as a treat

[-] Restaldt@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

Shoulda been scientists or detectives

They they could have all the doubt they want

[-] Natanael@slrpnk.net 1 points 9 months ago

Mathematicians have to express confidence intervals

this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
1607 points (99.0% liked)

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