Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter’s position

[Putaendo Patrick]

Well, it seems we're not the first to use our tablets for astronomy . In my morning newsfeed, the BBC picked up on an article published by Prof Mathieu Ossendrijver from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

"It had been thought that complex geometry was first used by scholars in Oxford and Paris in medieval times. They used curves to trace the position and velocity of moving objects. But now scientists believe the Babylonians developed this technique around 350 BC."

"Prof Ossendrijver examined five Babylonian tablets that were excavated in the 19th Century, and which are now held in the British Museum's archives. The script reveals that they were using four-sided shapes, called trapezoids, to calculate when Jupiter would appear in the night sky, and also the speed and distance that it travelled."

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35431974

The article was published in Science magazine. This is the link to the full publication:

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6272/482.full

It's to early for me to get my head round this, I'll have another read when I'm a bit more lucid. In essence, however, it's another proof of the sophistication of early astronomical investigation, so much of which has been lost over the centuries.

[baggywrinkle]

 I would rather think it is a refind of material already held. I am doubtful if the first measurements were carried out by the scholars of the 14th & 15th Century

If you look at the Babylonian history they were the first to divide a circle into 360 Deg  and use a base of 60 as a counting unit, so they counted 1-60. They further sub divided their circle using 6 equilateral triangles

They were measuring the movement of the Sun & Moon so I would not be surprised at all if they were measuring Jupiters movement.

The Greeks used much of their work for further developments in maths and geometry.