"Clay tablets reveal Babylonians discovered astronomical geometry 1,400 years before Europeans"
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I thought it was common knowledge that the ancient Babylonians had studied the stars and charted them.
This is interesting, but I guess not surprising to me.
This is interesting, but I guess not surprising to me.
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I believe the new idea was that they understood how to compute the area under a curve.
Ah, ok. I misread then.
Though, I thought both the Babylonians and the Greeks had calculated that or am I misremembering?
Though, I thought both the Babylonians and the Greeks had calculated that or am I misremembering?
The Washington Post piece in the OP is off on the history of integral calculus in Europe. It says that integral calculus "was developed in Europe in 1350, according to historians." That's not true. It wasn't developed in the 14th century; that's too early. It wasn't until the 17th century when the critical developments occurred and were culminated by the work of Newton and Leibniz.
The opening paragraph of the article cryptically mentions "medieval mathematicians of Oxford." Likely, it's referring to the so-called Oxford Calculators, who lived in the 14th century. They did work on celestial mechanics, among other things, but not integral calculus, although some of their developments constituted important preliminary groundwork.
This wiki is on the history of calculus.
This wiki on specific work of the Oxford Calculators mentions the Babylonian calculation of the motion of Jupiter.
This wiki is on Babylonian mathematics.
The opening paragraph of the article cryptically mentions "medieval mathematicians of Oxford." Likely, it's referring to the so-called Oxford Calculators, who lived in the 14th century. They did work on celestial mechanics, among other things, but not integral calculus, although some of their developments constituted important preliminary groundwork.
This wiki is on the history of calculus.
This wiki on specific work of the Oxford Calculators mentions the Babylonian calculation of the motion of Jupiter.
This wiki is on Babylonian mathematics.
Actually the higher functions of Math based off of Algebra was developed by Arabs in the Middle East. If it wasn't for their math we might still be in the Dark Ages. I think when Alexander the Great conquered Babylon is when the mathematicians actually started developing advanced maths which then allowed them to create super weapons such as the catapults and ballista which eventually became today's modern tanks and missiles.
Your chronology is a little inaccurate. The development of mathematics in the Middle East that you're referring to didn't take place until 1200 or more years after Alexander. Catapults and ballistae existed before Alexander, although he was the first to take real advantage of them.
Oh, and catapults and ballistae are not related to tanks and missiles.
Oh, and catapults and ballistae are not related to tanks and missiles.
The term "Dark Ages" is also no longer appropriate.
Because the knights were shortened by all the illumination?
Speaking of illuminated knights, any theories on why they can often be found fighting snails? Political reference? Social reference? Monastic equivalent of lolcats?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...nights-always-fighting-snails-1728888/?no-ist
Are knights really always out to slug someone?
I do find the idea proposed here that it is a visual critique of knights and perhaps aristocracy as a whole based on Psalm 58 and its prayer to God that enemies like snails melt away into slime. The snail and knight being equals in battle could be taken to face the same fate before God?
http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/2013/09/29/knight-vs-snail/
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It's the first meme! (Seriously, do you think someone 600 years from now could make any sense of all the weird-ass memes flying around today? I can't even make sense of half of them myself!)
That's what attracted me to the Psalm explanation. It's basically a medieval troll.
You mean the dankest meme of them all.
This appears to be as good an explanation as any. Nobody seems to know why it's snails--could be a dig at the Lombards, could be a humorous meme, could have Biblical influence, but nobody can agree on why, just that knights fighting snails seem to show up everywhere in that period. That's hilarious.
I believe it's because snails are impervious to the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Spawn of Satan.
And what about this. Invented a long time ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
Pretty damn clever given the age of this device.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism
Pretty damn clever given the age of this device.
Interesting video about it here.
These kind of things are so cool. They often make me think that what we consider really primitive people, might not be so primitive after all.
Indeed they weren't. From our modern perspective, we tend to believe that ancient peoples were overwhelmingly violent and unintelligent, but this is not true at all. Of course there was war and other violence, but there was also incredibly sophisticated thought, culture, and communication.
This book offers some fascinating details on the ancient world and gives you an idea of how complex societies of 3000-4000 years ago were.
Howcome they could make a mechanical computer like that, yet today we can't even dream to reproduce such a device? Did we go backwards somewhere?
Why would you when a computer can do the same thing and more? Why not use rigged sail ships, better for the environment?