How a 16th century pirate accidentally spawned a centuries-old math problem

T1Covered by 1 source · first reported by Raspberry Pi / Arduino / Adafruit at 29 Oct, 11:55 UTC

Manon Bischoff, writing for Scientific American, traces a math problem back to a practical shipboard question. Sir Walter Raleigh wanted to know how many cannonballs were in a stack, so he asked his scientific advisor, Thomas Harriot. Harriot found a formula for a square pyramid, then wondered if…

Sources

• T1How a 16th century pirate accidentally spawned a centuries-old math problemRaspberry Pi / Arduino / Adafruit29 Oct, 11:55