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Stonehenge Builders Used Pythagoras' Theorem 2,000 Years Before He Was Born (techtimes.com)
According to a new book entitled "Megalith," which was released on June 21 to coincide with summer solstice, ancient humans who designed Stonehenge followed Pythagoras' theorem 2,000 years before his birth, around 2500 B.C. The theorem states that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the other two squares on the triangle. TechTimes reports: [The theorem] was developed by ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who was born in 570 B.C. However, Stonehenge was assembled 2,000 years before his birth, around 2500 B.C. This theory suggests that these ancient humans were smarter than what people give them credit for. In order to use Pythagoras' theorem, they had to be really skilled at geometry.
"We think these people didn't have scientific minds but first and foremost they were astronomers and cosmologists," John Matineau, the editor of the book, told the Telegraph. "They were studying long and difficult to understand cycles and they knew about these when they started planning sites like Stonehenge."
"We think these people didn't have scientific minds but first and foremost they were astronomers and cosmologists," John Matineau, the editor of the book, told the Telegraph. "They were studying long and difficult to understand cycles and they knew about these when they started planning sites like Stonehenge."
That article is possibly the stupidest thing I have ever read in my life.
What would Benjamin Franklin have to say about the absurdity that Alaska, with less than a million inhabitants, has the same Senate power as California, a state with over 38 million people
He'd say, "Good". That's EXACTLY what the Senate was designed for... so that small states would be on an equal footing with the large states.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
If you're making a right triangle of any kind it follows Pythagoras by default - it wouldn't be a triangle otherwise. I wish they had given some kind of example of what indication there was of an understanding of the math involved.
Stonehenge contains right triangles; the right triangles obey the Pythagorean theorem; therefore whoever built Stonehenge must have known the Pythagorean theorem.
But ALL right triangles obey the Pythagorean theorem (which is the whole point of the theorem), so this would be true whether the people who built them knew about the theorem or not.
That is indeed part of the design of the senate. I personally find it disturbing that someone from Wyoming has twice the representation in the House of Representatives and in presidential elections than someone from Texas, however.
"Wyoming is a U.S. state with two senators in the United States Senate and one representatives in the United States House of Representatives."
"Texas is a U.S. state with two senators in the United States Senate and 36 representatives in the United States House of Representatives."
So... what the fuck are you talking about?
Prove it!
Table-ized A.I.
Quite.
Maths is not an inherently intellectual-only exercise. It can be determined to within a human margin of error quite easily by empirical evidence.
The same claim goes to the pyramid-builders. But the desert is littered with collapsed and bad pyramids that weren't right or were changed mid-construction. And those are just the ones that got left rather than "Rip it up, it's wrong, that's a billion tons of stone, we can re-use it"...
Though I don't doubt these people were not just Neanderthals bashing clubs against their head, they didn't formalise mathematics in this fashion. Pythagoras did, which is why we know his name and call him a mathematician.
You have to recognise that Stonehenge proper was 3000-2000 BC. Mesolithic posts on the site align to a lunar calendar thousands of years before that.
For thousands of years, people maintained a site with significance to their astronomical observations. Yes, for religious purposes, but they weren't idiots. Likely these people had intelligence not vastly different from our own, but they lacked a more formal education process. The ability to sit in a classroom for 18-20 years and be taught every day is the only thing that's changed. These people weren't stupid, just not formally educated. Plenty of people even today operate on the exact same principle!
How many adults, now, today, could tell you what Pythagoras' Theorem was, state it, understand it, apply it and see it's application to places like Stonehenge? It's by far not everyone.
How many adults, now, today, are going to build something that's still standing in thousands of years, and how intelligent (collectively) would everyone who worked on it have to be to do that?
I find it quite insulting that people think even Stone Age man was some thick-headed caveman. And that EVERY Stone Age person was that thick.
Hilariously, I watched a series on TV a few years ago where a group of people tried to live in an isolated area with no modern facilities and they failed MISERABLY. Literally, they ate through their initial stock of food, they couldn't build a shelter, meat was left to go rotten for days with no preparation and they were SURPRISED by that, they trekked miles to get water and came back with almost nothing, not even food gathered along the way, and when snow hit, they were all evacuated to safety because they didn't bother to make any preparations.
Just being "modern man" doesn't make us collectively intelligent. There are outliers whose knowledge benefits us all, while half of people are of "below average" intelligence (by definition - if you don't understand that, nor do half the population!). That a few thousand years ago, not long enough to have biologically changed us very much at all except under extreme evolutionary pressure, there were people capable of taking a reasonable guess at the length of a side of a basic engineering project? Yeah? And? So what?
We are doing these people a disservice. It's probably why a lot of people just assume that dinosaurs and cavemen lived together.
These people probably didn't even have TIME to sit around and think, let alone formerly school, but it doesn't mean they were stupid. They could probably only burn wood, maybe a primitive oil for light (outside of full moons) - hell we don't know what they might have been doing of an evening, they may be much cleverer than we thought. But likely the night was a loss and most of the day was used for more essential tasks like surviving and gathering food and making weapons.
You're not telling me that you're surprised a Bear Grylls existed back then who had mastered his art after generations and had time to sit and think, even if his village mates were still worshipping trees?
Pick a modern human couple at random, put them back in that environment, and we'd likely not be able to replicate anything of Mesolithic mathematics, cosmology, survival skills, etc. for dozens of generations (if they even live that long).
Outside of w
He'd say, "Good". That's EXACTLY what the Senate was designed for... so that small states would be on an equal footing with the large states.
This is just it. Democracy comes in various flavours. Some representational, some direct, some are tyranny of the minority, but all were designed with a very specific purpose and end goal.
Personally I hate the system in the USA, but there sure is no arguing against the reasons for its creation. There is only arguing if its design was ultimately in the best interest of the people, and in this case that argument depends entirely on which people you are talking about.