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A brief examination of their paper shows that:

1. They did not discover a new tablet. The tablet they study is well known. 
They just offer a new interpretation of it.

2. This is not a trigonometric table in the modern sense of the word. It does 
not tabulate the sine (or any other function) as a function of the angle.
This is rather a list of "Pythagorean triples", that is rational  solutions of 
the equation a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
(We know that such triples are associated to triangles with one straight 
angle, but whether the scribe who produced this table also knew this, is not 
clear).

So the question discussed is what is the purpose of this list. The traditional 
point of view was that this is
some student exercise. They propose a new opinion, that this table somehow had 
a function of a trigonometric table.

My impression is that this is "somewhat controversial" to say the least. But 
we will see how other scientists will react on this paper.

(On my opinion, serious scientists usually do not advertise their new discoveries on youtube:-)
But who knows).

Alex. 


________________________________________
From: NavList@fer3.com [NavList@fer3.com] on behalf of Jackson McDonald [NoReply_McDonald@fer3.com]
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2017 6:53 PM
To: eremenko@math.purdue.edu
Subject: [NavList] Ancient Babylonian tablet - world's first trig table?

Scholars have discovered evidence of an ancient Babylonian system of 
trigonometry dating from 1000 years before Pythagoras.

I wonder if this system could be applied to spherical trigonometry.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i9-ZPGp1AJE

JMcD

   

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