Iraq: 3700-year-old tablet discovered likely to be the oldest example of applied geometry

An Australian mathematician has discovered that a 3700-year-old tablet that was previously thought to be a "teacher's list of school problems" is actually the oldest example of applied geometry ever discovered. Istanbul's National Museum has housed the tablet since the late 19th century when it was discovered. Originally discovered in what is now central Iraq, the tablet bears the classification Si.427.

“The discovery and analysis of the tablet have important implications for the history of mathematics," Daniel Mansfield, the study's author, made the statement in a press release. The study appeared in Foundations of Science on August 3.

An analysis of the hand-tablet suggests that the drawings and calculations on the device were probably used by a surveyor to calculate the value of a piece of land for sale. A hand-tablet, which seems to be written by using a stylus, appears to use a mathematical concept known as Pythagoras triplets, which we now know. As the name implies, these are the three sides of an equilateral triangle in which the sum of their squared areas is equal to that of their largest side. In modern trigonometry, we use sin, cos, and tan ratios to calculate trigonometric functions.

"Proto-Trigonometry"

Researchers have dubbed the system used by the tablet "proto-trigonometry" for this reason. An earlier tablet from the same era, analyzed by Mansfield and his colleague Norman Wildberger at UNSW, described right-angled triangles by using Pythagoras triplets.

A Pythagorean triplet calculation system, according to Mansfield, hints at the sophistication of the society to which this tablet belonged. In the researcher's opinion, the new revelations could have a significant impact on the history of geometric thought. Many ancient civilizations, including Babylonia, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Greece, were responsible for the development of early geometry. The earliest known evidence of Geometry dates back to 3000 BCE, based on what is known at this time.