An ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first evidence of trigonometry

Re:An ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first eviden... by jonahx on Saturday August 26, 2017 @03:44PM (#15107002)

thanks for posting this. what does "decimally smooth" mean in this context?

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Re:An ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first eviden... by jacobolus on Sunday August 27, 2017 @02:57AM (#15109514)

I just mean a number such that both itself and its reciprocal is a terminating decimal (rather than a repeating decimal like the reciprocal of 3; 1/3 = 1.33333...). That is, some rational number made up of 2 to some power times 5 to some power (either or both of the exponents could be negative).

“Decimally regular” might be a more standard term.

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