Honey, I Finished The Internet

6 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. This is really interesting. I get some interested looks when I calculate a square root to 8-9 decimals quickly with a 4-function calculator with a memory (using Newton’s method for solving equations), but this Babylonian method is thousands of years older than this. Thanks for sharing.

   mhb23re

2. Heh – it converges the same as Newton’s method, starting with an initial guess of 2 for square root of 5. It’s the same iterative process.

   Damn clever, those Babylonians.

   1. You can adapt Newton’s method to calculate any whole number root, and taking reciprocals, any integer root of a number, barring the undefined zeroth root, of course.

3. Most people have problems with addition and subtraction. Just look at government budgets.

4. That youtuber always bugged me, refusing to call the cosine law the cosine law, calling it “Al Kashi’s Theorem” instead.

5. I’m in my 80’s now, so you know I’m talking about the Dark Ages when I say that my middle-school math class required all students to master square-root calculations. (We didn’t have the benefit of the Babylonian tablet or of electronic calculators.)