In the British museum, it was found one of four Babylonian tablets, which flourished in Mesopotamia between 1900 BC and 1600 BC, which has a connection with Pythagoras's theorem, as the following:
4 is the length and 5 the diagonal. What is the breadth ?
Its size is not known.
4 times 4 is 16.
5 times 5 is 25.
You take 16 from 25 and there remains 9.
What times what shall I take in order to get 9 ?
3 times 3 is 9.
3 is the breadth.
Reference:
O’Connor, J.J and Robertson, E.F., 1999, Pythagoras of Samos, http://www- history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Pythagoras.html
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