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Astronomy & Mathematics

Babylonian astronomers tracked planets for centuries; their mathematicians invented sexagesimal arithmetic — the reason we still divide hours into 60 minutes and circles into 360 degrees.

Old Babylonian2000 – 1600 BCE

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianEditorial

Plimpton 322

Whatever its purpose, this single tablet shows that Babylonian mathematicians, working in base-60, had an arithmetic understanding of right triangles a millennium before Pythagoras was born.

Astronomy & Mathematics