687
Pythagorean Theorem Found On Clay Tablet 1,000 Years Older Than Pythagoras
(www.iflscience.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
687 points (99.4% liked)
Science
13141 readers
55 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Isn't this common knowledge that the Indians knew the theorem well before Pythagorus?
@mukt @Zerush A fair number of people worked out the Pythagorean theorem before Pythagoras existed. For some reason his name stuck for our culture.
Given what other comments are saying about him (cult leader appropriating works of others), I think the west/europe would do well not to associate themselves with him.
Yes and also I have a hard time believing the builders if the great pyramid didn't understand it in some capacity either. They just didn't have symbolic algebra to express it the way we do .
There are mentions of pythagorian triplets in pyramid era Egypt, and in all fairness, ancient Greeks didn't have symbolic algebra either - it is a fairly recent form of expression.
And, as far as I know, ancient Indians were actually writing mathematical expressions in full prose form - word problems et al.