Comment on Hate it when this happens

Sibshops@feddit.cl ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

• bampop@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They had the same intelligence as us. What they didn’t have is the same education. That’s the difference that education makes.

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• threeonefour@piefed.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Tibees has a video about the Rhind mathematical papyrus, a writing of math problems used for educating Egyptian scribes from 1650 BCE.

  It describes finding volumes for cylinders using a formula similar to the modern one but with 256/81 (~= 3.16) as the stand-in for π.

  It also has questions on finding concentration of valuable ingredients in finished product. 100L of beer made from 1kg of grain has a lower concentration of grain in the final product than 50L of beer made from the same amount. If you add water to the 50L of beer, it’s value would change and scribes would be expected to calculate the exact change in value.

  Just like there’s a large overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest humans, there’s an overlap between the smartest ancient people and dumbest people today.

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  • bampop@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    256/81 (~= 3.16) as the stand-in for π.

    Interesting choice, it suggests they didn’t have any way to verify the accuracy of that approximation, since 22/7 is way closer, but (4/3)^4 is really cute and elegant.

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    • untorquer@quokk.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Also the volume of the sphere is then (4/3)^5 r^3 so i wonder if it had something to do with trying to unify that

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      • bampop@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        That’s so neat, we should resurrect the Indiana Pi Bill with this value!

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• OpenStars@discuss.online ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  They were pretty much as smart as we are - many of them more so than many of us today.

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  • JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip ⁨47⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    For example, I think it’s the Chaco Canyon civilization that managed to perfect the math necessary to track the stars, moon, and sun, but as far as we know had no system of writing. Which means they were just memorizing that shit.

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  • arctanthrope@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    what’s even crazier to think about is that there were likely several thousands of years where our ancestors were about as cognitively evolved as we are now, with language and society and culture, and simultaneously living alongside other now-extinct hominin species, like neanderthals and denisovans, who were likely similarly cognitively capable. makes me wonder if stories were still have from mythology about elves or dwarves or fae are cultural remnants of a time when we actually did live alongside not-quite-human sapient creatures

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    • OpenStars@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      The Neanderthals even had music! And larger brains than sapiens, iirc. We were more brutish and savage hence won out in the end. The TV series Sense8 explores and popularizes some of what you are saying.

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  • wopalopa@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    there not as book smart as we are but a lot def more street smart than most of us today. different generation different kind of knowledge but same hardware

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    • OpenStars@discuss.online ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Well said.

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