<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article deals with the damaged and incomplete Old Babylonian tablet <italic>Plimpton 322</italic> which contains 4 columns and 15 rows of a cuneiform mathematical text. It has been shown that the presumed original table with its 7 columns and 39 rows represented: a table of square roots of numbers from 0 to 2 for mathematicians; an earliest rudiments of a trigonometric table for builders and surveyors where angles are not measured as an arc in a unit circle but as a side of a unit right-angled triangle; a list of the 39 exercises on reciprocal pairs, unit and integer-side right triangles (rectangles), factorization and square numbers for teachers.The article provides new arguments in favor of old disputes (squares of diagonals or widths; mistakes in previous analysis of errors in <italic>P322</italic>). Contradictory ideas about <italic>P322</italic> are discussed: Is it the table of triangle sides or factorization terms? Was it compiled by a parallel or independent factorization of the sides or of their squares? Are sides of an initial unit triangle enlarged or reduced by such a factorization? Does it contain two or four arithmetical errors?Time and dimensional requirements for calculation and writing of the complete tablet have been also estimated.</abstract>

This article deals with the damaged and incomplete Old Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 which contains 4 columns and 15 rows of a cuneiform mathematical text. It has been shown that the presumed original table with its 7 columns and 39 rows represented: a table of square roots of numbers from 0 to 2 for mathematicians; an earliest rudiments of a trigonometric table for builders and surveyors where angles are not measured as an arc in a unit circle but as a side of a unit right-angled triangle; a list of the 39 exercises on reciprocal pairs, unit and integer-side right triangles (rectangles), factorization and square numbers for teachers.The article provides new arguments in favor of old disputes (squares of diagonals or widths; mistakes in previous analysis of errors in P322). Contradictory ideas about P322 are discussed: Is it the table of triangle sides or factorization terms? Was it compiled by a parallel or independent factorization of the sides or of their squares? Are sides of an initial unit triangle enlarged or reduced by such a factorization? Does it contain two or four arithmetical errors?Time and dimensional requirements for calculation and writing of the complete tablet have been also estimated.

<italic>Plimpton 322</italic> : A Universal Cuneiform Table for Old Babylonian Mathematicians, Builders, Surveyors and Teachers

Mathematical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Štefánikova 49 SK–814-73 Bratislava,

Tatra Mountains Mathematical Publications

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

 : A Universal Cuneiform Table for Old Babylonian Mathematicians, Builders, Surveyors and Teachers

This article deals with the damaged and incomplete Old Babylonian tablet Plimpton 322 which contains 4 columns and 15 rows of a cuneiform mathematical text. It...

Plimpton 322 : A Universal Cuneiform Table for Old Babylonian Mathematicians, Builders, Surveyors and Teachers

Published Online: Feb 25, 2017

Page range: 1 - 40

Received: Nov 02, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/tmmp-2016-0027

Keywords
Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet, compilation, errors, users, sexagesimal numbers, Pythagorean theorem and triplets

© 2016 Rudolf Hajossy, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Plimpton 322 : A Universal Cuneiform Table for Old Babylonian Mathematicians, Builders, Surveyors and Teachers

Published Online: Feb 25, 2017

Page range: 1 - 40

Received: Nov 02, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/tmmp-2016-0027

KeywordsOld Babylonian cuneiform tablet, compilation, errors, users, sexagesimal numbers, Pythagorean theorem and triplets

© 2016 Rudolf Hajossy, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Old Babylonian cuneiform tablet, compilation, errors, users, sexagesimal numbers, Pythagorean theorem and triplets