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Plimpton 322: a universal cuneiform table for Old Babylonian mathematicians, builders, surveyors and teachers

In: Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, vol. 67, no. 3
Rudolf Hajossy

Details:

Year, pages: 2016, 1 - 40
Keywords:
Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet, Plimpton 322, compilation, errors, users, sexagesimal numbers, Pythagorean theorem and triplets
About article:
This article deals with the damaged and incomplete Old Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 which contains 4 columns and 15 rows of a cuneiform mathematical text. It has been shown that the presumed original table with its 7 columns and 39 rows represented: a table of square roots of numbers from 0 to 2 for mathematicians; an earliest rudiments of a trigonometric table for builders and surveyors where angles are not measured as an arc in a unit circle but as a side of a unit right-angled triangle; a list of the 39 exercises on reciprocal pairs, unit and integer-side right triangles (rectangles), factorization and square numbers for teachers.

The article provides new arguments in favor of old disputes (squares of diagonals or widths; mistakes in previous analysis of errors in P322). Contradictory ideas about P322 are discussed: Is it the table of triangle sides or factorization terms? Was it compiled by a parallel or independent factorization of the sides or of their squares? Are sides of an initial unit triangle enlarged or reduced by such a factorization? Does it contain two or four arithmetical errors?

Time and dimensional requirements for calculation and writing of the complete tablet have been also estimated.

How to cite:
ISO 690:
Hajossy, R. 2016. Plimpton 322: a universal cuneiform table for Old Babylonian mathematicians, builders, surveyors and teachers. In Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, vol. 67, no.3, pp. 1-40. 1210-3195.

APA:
Hajossy, R. (2016). Plimpton 322: a universal cuneiform table for Old Babylonian mathematicians, builders, surveyors and teachers. Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications, 67(3), 1-40. 1210-3195.