Ancient mathematical heritage

Thirteen clay tablets containing the cuneiform characters of ancient Mesopotamia, dating back to 1900-1700 BC, are on display at the Institute of Ancient World Studies at New York University (USA).

If there are no conditions to take place, you can admire these antiques at http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/11/18/science/20101123-babylon.html.

Many students come here to learn and study the Sumerian character written on clay tablets by ancient mathematicians. Artifacts are extracted from archeological collections of Columbia, Yale and Pennsylvania universities. Among them are two very famous members, YBC 7289 and Plimpton 322, playing a central role in the reconstruction of Babylon's mathematical background.

YBC 7289 (photo) is a small clay tablet that draws a square and its diagonal. On a diagonal there are scribbles that represent numbers 1,24,51,10 which in hexadecimal it corresponds to the number 1.414219 (approximate number of square root number 2). That is the answer to the problem of calculating the diagonal of a square with sides of 0.5 units. This suggests that the Babylonians might have discovered Pithago's theorem earlier than the mathematician himself 1,300 years.

And Plimpton 322 (image) seems to contain characters that represent the Pithago theorem calculation as the square of the hypotenuse equal to the sum of the squares of the two sides of the right triangle, like the corresponding numbers are 3, 4, and 5.