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

[-] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 127 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What I would like to know is if tablets like this are being scanned digitally into three dimensions so that they can be reproduced. I feel like everything we find from antiquity needs to be scanned this way. With humans constantly going to war destroying history, I'd hate the idea of losing things like this forever.

UPDATE: And thus a journey down the interwebs rabbit hole begins. I need better internet and PC to check this out more later, but answering my own question, here's the entrance to the rabbit hole should others wish to venture with a few examples:

Smithsonian Institution: The Smithsonian has a vast collection of 3D scanned artifacts available online, including prehistoric tools and sculptures https://3d.si.edu/.
Europeana: This digital platform features 3D scans of cultural heritage objects from across Europe https://pro.europeana.eu/project/3d-content-in-europeana.
Cultural Heritage Imaging (CHI): This non-profit organization promotes the use of 3D scanning for cultural heritage preservation https://www.culturalheritageimaging.org/.

[-] lemmingnosis@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

Didn’t all kinds of antiquities get destroyed in Iraq? Totally irreplaceable stuff.

As you alluded, probably common in many places. How sad.

[-] GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca 23 points 10 months ago

Most recently I remember it happening really really badly within Syria. Very intentional destruction. But yes, it happens all the time--Iraq included. With the technology we have now, we can preserve a lot of it (digitally at least).

I hate how it's so damn hard to find these things and yet so easy to destroy it.

[-] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

A lot was destroyed but a lot of it was looted and and sold to sleazy collectors. Remember when the guy who owns Hobby Lobby got caught buying looted artifacts?

Still horrible, obviously, but at least there’s some hope looted items will be recovered.

[-] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 10 months ago

I wonder how many artifacts could be recovered if we could search all the rich people mansions...

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Yea ISIS and other extremist groups like to destroy evidence of their ancestor’s greatness for some reason.

Lesser sons of lesser sons

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[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago

There's also the https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/about Obviously, losing a dimension isn't great but still pretty cool

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 96 points 10 months ago

I knew Pythagoras was smart but I never knew he invented time travel. So cool!

[-] Pronell@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

I took the opposite tack.

You ain't shit, Pythagoras! You just wrote it down, you didn't figure it out, you absolute fucking fraud. We're taking your immortality back!

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Quick! Change all the textbooks to “clay tablet theorem”!

[-] maniii@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Why not call it the Summerian Theorem ? Or Arabic/Persian/Philistine Triangulation Theorem ?

[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

And he invented plagiarism too!

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

nah he probably stole that as well.

[-] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

Poor poor Plagiar, everything he invented people stole and took credit for.

[-] fishbone@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

The Plagiarian theorem is a real bummer.

[-] uriel238 88 points 10 months ago

This makes a strong case on the discovery side of the discovery vs. invention controversy.

Ironically, my dad idolized Pythagoras and the notion of discovering a scientific fundamental to be remembered for thousands of years, for which the secret is not to actually do science, but raise a cult of scientists who attribute their inventions to you. Like Thomas Edison.

[-] No1@aussie.zone 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

raise a cult

*cough* Elon Musk *cough*

[-] Jessvj93@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Edison, Watson/Crick, Musk, Jobs....I hope today it's much harder to get away with being an idea stealing tool bag since the internet has competent archivers, sans working under a company that owns anything you make.

[-] SoleInvictus 1 points 10 months ago

As in turns out, Watson and Crick may not have actually stolen anything from Rosalind Franklin after all. If you're interested, I found an article I read regarding it about a year back. A couple of researchers provide some interesting info and context that make the original data stealing narrative less certain.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rosalind-franklin-dna-structure-watson-crick

[-] kromem@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It was most of the Greeks. We credit Democritus with atomism even though the Greeks said it came from an earlier Phoenician, Mochus of Sidon. Even Democritus's teacher doesn't get credit.

Democritus wrote it down in a way that survived.

That's it.

[-] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

Not really. The Pythagorean theorem (or whomever you want to credit for it) assumes plane geometry. It’s not true in general.

Plane geometry is the invention that makes all of the math work. The earth is not a flat plane (not even close to flat pretty much anywhere). If you want to do Pythagorean-like calculations between cities on earth, for example, you’ll get a much more accurate result with spherical geometry operating on geodesics. Unfortunately, spherical triangles not obey the Pythagorean theorem!

[-] AtariDump@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

🎶 They say Thomas Edison he’s the man to bring us into this century

And that man is me…

[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 25 points 10 months ago

Cuneiform scripts were frequently coppied by scribes, so the theorem could be even older

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

A handful of people can be credited with discovering the theorem prior to Pythagoras, this isn't the first time this has come up, and incidentally there is almost no evidence to suggest Pythagoras did.

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

Good to know! TBH, I'm specifically excited to see it was present in the fertile crescent. I really like clay tablets.

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[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago

I think that this theorem is at least as old as the pyramids.

[-] billgamesh@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

The recent "Fall of Civilizations" podcast talks a lot about the history of the pyramids. They may still have known a lot about geometery, but the slopes and angles involved in the pyramid building seem to have been trial and error as much as anything

[-] spirinolas@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

A few days ago I was building a Lego set and had to go back 10 steps because of a mistake and that made me very angry.

[-] Zerush@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

The pyraamids are way more complex and accurate as been build only by trial and error. It's architects knew exactly what they were doing and also geometric theorema way more complex as the one of "Phytagoras", as shown also in other ancient buildings, which are still difficult to reproduce by modern architects.

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[-] Juice@midwest.social 23 points 10 months ago

I thought it was pretty well established that Pythagoras didn't invent it, he was just the leader of a Math and Murder cult so he stole it

[-] SoleInvictus 11 points 10 months ago

"Math and Murder Cult" sounds metal as hell. I'd join.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

I bet Pythagoras had substandard copper too

[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Pythagoras has superior copper. All other thagoras has inferior copper.

[-] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 10 months ago

This is one of the reasons why we shouldn't name things after people.

[-] Muffi@programming.dev 7 points 10 months ago

This, and the fact that most stuff is invented by teams and not individuals. I think our tendency to name after a single person helps keep the hero/savior/Messiah complex of western society alive, and blinds us to the power of community and cooperation. It's like "individual-washing" the past.

[-] mukt@lemmy.ml 12 points 10 months ago

Isn't this common knowledge that the Indians knew the theorem well before Pythagorus?

[-] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

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 .

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[-] kromem@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

I feel like at this point I've seen this story in 1,000 year old reposts.

[-] paraphrand@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

What a classic situation. Some hype man taking credit.

[-] MonkderDritte@feddit.de 7 points 10 months ago

And garden of eden as well as the story with a baby in a basket in Nil, are already in Atrahasis epos, from which Gilgamesh epos copied btw.

[-] affiliate@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

people joined a cult because of this theorem. that must be awkward

[-] anarchist@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Ok so

[-] fukurthumz420@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

because understanding the history of our technology gives anthropologists a better way to determine what we were capable of in our earliest stages of civilization. because understanding the history of us is important to understanding who we are. do you really not see the value in knowledge?

[-] cupcakezealot 1 points 10 months ago

yah but pythagoras is the new bob

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