Babylonian Tablet

TUCKED AWAY in a seemingly forgotten corner of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Daniel Mansfield found what may solve one of ancient math’s biggest questions.

First exhumed in 1894 from what is now Baghdad, the circular tablet — broken at the center with small perpendicular indentations across it — was feared lost to antiquity. 

But in 2018, a photo of the tablet showed up in Mansfield’s inbox.

Mansfield, a senior lecturer of mathematics at the University of New South Wales Sydney, had suspected the tablet was real. He came across records of its excavation and began the hunt. 

Word got around about what he was looking for, and then the email came. He knew what he had to do: travel to Turkey and examine it at the museum.

Hidden within this tablet is not only the oldest known display of applied geometry but a new ancient understanding of triangles. It could rewrite what we know about the history of mathematics, Mansfield argues.

These findings were published Wednesday in the journal Foundations of Science.

It’s generally thought that trigonometry — a subset of geometry and what’s displayed on the tablet in a crude sense — was developed by ancient Greeks like the philosopher Pythagoras. 

However, analysis of the tablet suggests it was created 1,000 years before Pythagoras was born.  READ MORE

An Angry Octopus

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A swim on holiday at a Western Australia beach has resulted in a painful octopus “whipping” - and a video of the encounter that has gone viral.

Geologist and author Lance Karlson was about to take a dip near the resort he and his family were staying at in Geographe Bay, on Australia’s southwest coast, when he spotted what he thought was the tail of a stingray emerging from the water and striking a seagull.

Upon walking closer with his two-year-old daughter, he discovered it was an octopus, and took a video, which shows the animal in shallow water take a sudden strike in Karlson’s direction with its tentacles.

“The octopus lashed out at us, which was a real shock,” Karlson said in emailed comments to Reuters.

After setting up a sun protection tent for his family on the beach, Karlston put on goggles and went in the water alone to explore a collection of crab shells, which he believed were left by dead sea creatures.

As he was swimming, he felt another whip across his arm - followed by a more forceful sting across his neck and upper back.

“My goggles became fogged, the water was suddenly murky and I remember being shocked and confused,” Karlson added in the email.

Karlson said he raced back to shore and saw raised imprints of tentacles across his arm, neck and upper back. Since he did not have vinegar, his preferred treatment for sea animal stings, he poured cola over the affected area, which worked well to stop the stinging.  READ MORE