Mysterious Babylonian Tablet Could Hold Math Secrets

An ancient Babylonian tablet whose purpose has been a longstanding mystery reveals that the ancient Mesopotamian civilization beat the Greeks to the discovery of trigonometry by more than 1,000 years, researchers say—and their methodology might even hold lessons for modern-day mathematicians. The tablet, Plimpton 322, was discovered in the early 1900s in present-day Iraq, according to…