Trig and the Babylonians

[Steve James]

World's first trigonometry revealed in ancient Babylonian tablet

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The ancient Babylonians - who lived from about 4,000 BCE in what is now Iraq - had a long forgotten understanding of right-angled triangles that was much simpler and more accurate than the conventional trigonometry we are taught in schools.

Our new research, published in Historia Mathematica, shows that the Babylonians were able to construct a trigonometric table using only the exact ratios of sides of a right-angled triangle. This is a completely different form of trigonometry that does not need the familiar modern concept of angles.

https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2017/0 ... 503668755/

[KEND]

Interesting that they would use 60 instead of 10 which presumably evolve through 10 digits. Base e instead of base 10 is used in many applications, acoustics etc . Ratio of sides makes more sense if you are actually measuring rather than calculating on paper[or papyrus]