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Xuan tu or Hsuan thu (simplified Chinese: 弦图; traditional Chinese: 絃圖; pinyin: xuántú; Wade–Giles: hsüan 2 tʻu 2) is a diagram given in the ancient Chinese astronomical and mathematical text Zhoubi Suanjing indicating a proof of the Pythagorean theorem. [1] Zhoubi Suanjing is one of the oldest Chinese texts on mathematics. The ...
The Zhoubi was traditionally dated to the Duke of Zhou's own life [8] and considered to be the oldest Chinese mathematical treatise. [1] However, although some passages seem to come from the Warring States period or earlier, [ 8 ] the current text of the work mentions Lü Buwei and is believed to have received its current form no earlier than ...
The Pythagorean theorem was known and used by the Babylonians and Indians centuries before Pythagoras, [216] [214] [217] [218] but he may have been the first to introduce it to the Greeks. [219] [217] Some historians of mathematics have even suggested that he—or his students—may have constructed the first proof. [220]
Thales of Miletus (c. 624/623 – c. 548/545 BC) is the first known individual to use deductive reasoning applied to geometry, by deriving four corollaries to Thales' theorem. [1] Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC) was credited with many mathematical and scientific discoveries, including the Pythagorean theorem, Pythagorean tuning, the five ...
The Pythagorean theorem was also known to the Babylonians. Also, there was a recent discovery in which a tablet used π as 3 and 1/8. The Babylonians are also known for the Babylonian mile, which was a measure of distance equal to about seven miles today.
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).
It was the Pythagoreans who coined the term "mathematics", and with whom the study of mathematics for its own sake begins. The Pythagoreans are credited with the first proof of the Pythagorean theorem, [44] though the statement of the theorem has a long history, and with the proof of the existence of irrational numbers.
1800 BC – Plimpton 322 contains the oldest reference to the Pythagorean triplets. [ 1 ] 1650 BC – Rhind Mathematical Papyrus , copy of a lost scroll from around 1850 BC, the scribe Ahmes presents one of the first known approximate values of π at 3.16, the first attempt at squaring the circle , earliest known use of a sort of cotangent ...