Scholars have translated the 3,700-year-old Babylonian tablet that could rewrite the history of mathematics, suggesting that trigonometry may have been developed before the ancient Greeks.
It is reported by ET.
The researchers said the tablet proves that the Babylonians developed trigonometry about 1,500 years before the Greeks.
The artifact, named Plimpton 322, was found in southern Iraq around the beginning of the last century. American archaeologist and diplomat Edgar Banks, the prototype of Indiana Jones, opened the tablet.
“Our research shows that Plimpton 322 describes the shapes of right-angled triangles using a new kind of trigonometry based on ratios rather than angles and circles,” said Dr. Daniel Mansfield of the University of New South Wales School of Mathematics and Statistics, says university press release.
“This is a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undeniable genius. The tablet not only contains the oldest trigonometric table in the world; it is also the only fully accurate trigonometric table,”the expert added.
“Plimpton 322 was a powerful tool that could be used to plot fields or create architectural calculations to create palaces, temples or stepped pyramids,” he said.
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Prior to this, the Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who lived in 120 BC, was considered the father of trigonometry.