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The Berlin Papyrus 6619, simply called the Berlin Papyrus when the context makes it clear, [1] is one of the primary sources of ancient Egyptian mathematics. [2] One of the two mathematics problems on the Papyrus may suggest that the ancient Egyptians knew the Pythagorean theorem.
However, no Egyptian text before 300 BC actually mentions the use of the theorem to find the length of a triangle's sides. Therefore, the historian of mathematics Roger Cooke published that the Ancient Egyptians probably did know the Pythagorean theorem, but concludes that "there is no evidence that they used it to construct right angles". [1]
The majority of recovered clay tablets date from 1800 to 1600 BC, and cover topics that include fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations and the Pythagorean theorem. The Babylonian tablet YBC 7289 gives an approximation of 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}} accurate to three significant sexagesimal digits (about six significant decimal digits).
These weapons changed from bronze to iron in the New Kingdom period. [3] The earliest known depiction of a khopesh is from the Stele of the Vultures , depicting King Eannatum of Lagash wielding the weapon; this would date the khopesh to at least 2500 BC.
In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher (or harpedonaptai) was a surveyor who measured real property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the Theban Necropolis. [1] Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet, [2] which are still in use by modern ...
Significant advances in ancient Egypt during the dynastic period include astronomy, mathematics, and medicine.Their geometry was a necessary outgrowth of surveying to preserve the layout and ownership of fertile farmland, which was flooded annually by the Nile River. [1]
In the last part of the text, the solution is proved correct using the Pythagorean theorem. The steps of the solution are believed to represent cut-and-paste geometry operations involving a diagram from which, it has been suggested, ancient Mesopotamians might, at an earlier time, have derived the Pythagorean theorem.
The Bride's chair proof of the Pythagorean theorem, that is, the proof of the Pythagorean theorem based on the Bride's Chair diagram, is given below. The proof has been severely criticized by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as being unnecessarily complicated, with construction lines drawn here and there and a long line of deductive ...