scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1055009

MaRDI QIDQ4350132zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Matthias Schramm

Publication date 29 October 1997

zbMATH Keywords

Plimpton 322 Pythagorean triples

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics of the indigenous cultures of Europe (pre-Greek, etc.) (01A15) History of Babylonian mathematics (01A17)

Review text

The first (and major) part of the article treats of the Old Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 (the famous tabulation of number sets making use of Pythagorean triplets) with references to the discussion as it took place until 1967, and within the framework that was established in the 1930s. The final part argues that the tablet must be seen in the context of mathematics teaching, and proposes that Pythagorean triplets were used to construct solvable second-degree rectangle problems -- as already proposed by \textit{J. Friberg} in his thorough investigation of the same text from 1981 [Hist. Math. 8, 277-318 (1981; Zbl 0472.01002)]. The objection remains that all extant Old Babylonian rectangle problems have extremely simple solution (mostly sides 30 and 20) and therefore do not need the tool (for most it does not serve at all). Marginally it may be observed that the work of Marvin Powell, Jöran Friberg, Peter Damerow and Robert Englund in the 1970s and 1980s has moved the ``frühesten Periode der keilschriftlichen Mathematik (p. 292) from c. 1800 B.C. to the later fourth millennium B. C. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0868.00071].

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