Cultural Essay 2
As the Babylonians began focusing more on shapes, they started using geometry tables to define the basics of the simple shapes (triangles, squares and circles) with area’s and perimeters. Perimeters were the simpler of the two by designating each side of the shape with the letter ‘s’ and counting how many ‘s’ there were. For a circle, only one ‘s’ was designated therefore demanding ‘s’ to equal what we know today as C, or circumference. Today C=2πr whereas they Babylonians defined it as S= (3)d where d is diameter therefore defining the diameter to be 1/3. Area on the other hand today is defined as A=πr2. In those times, π was equal to 3 and like today radius was half the diameter therefore making area to equal A=3(d/2)2 .
Interestingly enough, square roots and Pythagorean Theorem, √N=√(a^2+b^2 ),
was developed about 1000 years before Pythagoras put his title on the development. This was discovered by using gnomon’s as pictured below which also help explain where the equation for right triangles a^2+b^2=c^2.
Another major finding in the math world is that of the Plimpton 322 were the first entry defines the 45-45-90 triangle and the fifteenth entry defines the 30-60-90 triangle. As the Babylonians were developing rapidly in their quest for the answers inside shapes, the Greeks had their own turn of events on the matter. Around 600 BCE, Thales who is known for the father of geometry, discovers the method of using similar triangle to calculate the height of the pyramids. This was accomplished by using a six foot tall poll to measure the distances of the shadows of both the pyramid and the pole.

Reflective Tag
As these developments unfold of defining the area’s and perimeters of these basic shapes, one can only imagine that this was the stepping stone to defining the volume of shapes such as cubes and pyramids that we use today. It is very interesting to me as well, with regarding circles, how π was defined in these equations as being equal to 3 which is not far off of the value of π used today. Without the combination of the gnomon’s and the Plimpton entries, it would have been very interesting to see how subjects such as the height of the pyramids would have been discovered. These were both crucial to the continuation of triangles that we use today all the time however the gnomons are not used often if at all today. I will conclude however, pondering the technicalities of measuring the height of the pyramids by what units of measure they used and how they seemed to do it so quickly with the sun continuing to rise or set.