Daniel Mansfield

Two gloved hands holding a clay tablet marked 'Si.427'

We might’ve been under lockdown this year, but science sure wasn’t.

Dr Daniel Mansfield holds si.427 in gloved hands in a darkened museum storage room ng

A UNSW scientist has revealed that an ancient clay tablet could be the oldest and most complete example of applied geometry, showing that ancient mathematics was more advanced than previously thought.

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UNSW scientists have discovered the purpose of a famous 3700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet, revealing it is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table.

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UNSW Sydney scientists have discovered the purpose of a famous 3700-year old Babylonian clay tablet, revealing it is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table, most likely used by ancient mathematical scribes to calculate how to construct palaces, temples and stepped pyramids.

Babalyonians

Daniel Mansfield and Norman Wildberger say a 3,700-year old Babylonian clay tablet is the world’s oldest and most accurate trigonometric table.