Babylonian Educator Makes a Data Entry Mistake in an Answer Key Table

In what constitutes the known oldest spreadsheet bluder, a Babylonian Educator enters incorrect data in answer key table for trigonometry exercies.

Education

Industry

Larsa, Iraq

Location

Year

-1800

Mistake Type

Data Entry

Resolution

never

Background

The Babylonians have done it all, and they were the first to write about it. Their achievements include the Oldest Customer Service Complaint , the Oldest-Ever Fake News and the world's oldest boomers complaining about the rotten young generation which might be a fake, though .

They were also into math, Algebra and Geometry and used tables. Their use of tables on tables is roughly equivalent to what spreadsheets are today, once differences in available technology are accounted for. And just like their descendants nowadays, the Babylonians did make mistakes.

Plimpton 322

Plimpton 322 - answer key table for trigonometry problems, from Wikipedia, source unknown.



Discovery

TODO xxxxxxxxxxxx Desribe that some errors were discovered later - the story has multiple layers

Tablet Error

TODO xxxxxxxxxxxx Describe the error briefly without going into full detail.

Impact

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Sources

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