4 ms·

I think this is the paper it's all coming from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315086098922091?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/sci

I think this is the paper it's all coming from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0315086098922091?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S031508609... They've found some tables of similar estimations, which apparently match the results you get when you apply the author's algorithm, suggesting that's what the Babylonians used as well. I don't think the method itself is actually attested anywhere in known texts.

Mathnerd314 4y ago
Well if you read that, the one attested computation is said to be mathematically equivalent to Heron's method (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_computing_square_roots#Heron's_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_computing_square_ro... ). An iterative Newton's method would be pretty unlikely.