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.

  • @hperrin
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    189 months ago

    Next to it: “First!”

    • @SalamendaciousOP
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      29 months ago

      I haven’t seen a comment like that in years. I bet there’s a whole slew of users (lemmies? What exactly are we called here?) Who have no clue what you’re talking about.

        • @SalamendaciousOP
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          29 months ago

          Hey as long as we’re all part of the same team.