It predates Pythagoras by over 1,000 years.

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.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    22·
    1 year ago

    No shit… these are like old Chuck Norris facts:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras

    the priest of Apollo gave Pythagoras a magic arrow, which he used to fly over long distances and perform ritual purifications

    A fragment from Aristotle records that, when a deadly snake bit Pythagoras, he bit it back and killed it.

    he once convinced a notoriously destructive bear to swear that it would never harm a living thing again, and that the bear kept its word

    • BreadEnglish
      10·
      1 year ago

      Kinda makes you wonder if future archeologists would know the difference between the jokes being jokes about chuck Norris vs us believing he was a god that we worshipped. Maybe that’s all mythology is, some running gags that everyone took seriously.

      • Elohim@lemm.ee
        2·
        1 year ago

        a god that we worshipped

        Would they be wrong? What’s the line between idolization and worship?

        • BreadEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I would argue praying to them and doing acts in their name. Although that last part could be twisted.