Automobile refinancing is a popular choice nowadays. For years, home refinancing has been a pretty common practice. The reason behind it is that there’s a ripe new opportunity to speed up the repayment process or to lower the mortgage payment every time interest rates drop in the market. In such a time, you can also squeeze out a little more of your home’s equity. But, going the refinancing way for your car is not something you hear about usually, and it’s certainly not something endorsed by commercials.

The Changing Scenario

With the tide of time, auto refinancing has gained more popularity over the last few years. As per the CNW Research, automobile loan refinancing has grown in 2014 to 14.1% of existing contracts. It’s a 12% increase since 2012 and a whopping 228% increase since 2009. Experts have identified two specific reasons behind this change. Firstly, the economic forces that have kept home mortgage rates low, have helped in keeping car loan rates low too. Secondly, across this spectrum, the durability of cars has increased due to upgraded mechanisms, making refinancing a car more feasible than ever.

The Top Vehicles

CarRefinance.com has done a useful survey to shed more light on the trend. This appropriately named website has recently released a list of the 10 most refinanced car models. They are — Nissan Altima, Ram 1500, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Dodge Charger, Ford F-150, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Impala, Chrysler 300, and Honda Civic. This list appears to be a cross-section of average cars. None of the models is exactly an economy vehicle, but not a luxury car either. Perhaps the Chrysler 300 is the only exception here. So, if you want to look into refinancing your car in the future, it’s likely better not to aim for a luxe sedan in the first place.

What would you say if you heard that the Babylonians used Pythagorean Theorem long before Pythagoras even existed? Before you say it isn’t possible, learn this – a Babylon-era clay tablet that is 3,700 years old has revealed that this theorem existed 1,000 years before the Greek philosopher’s birth.

The Discovery

This tablet, also known as Si.427, was said to be used by the ancient surveyors of the land to chart out boundaries accurately. The tablet is engraved with markings that provide instructions on how to make right-angled triangles. This is one of the earliest known applications of geometry. A French team excavated this tablet used by the Babylonians and it is now showcased in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. It belongs to an era between the dates 1900 B.C.E and 1600 B.C.E.

The Interpretations

Mathematician Daniel Mansfield, from Australia’s University of New South Wales, stated, it is widely accepted that ancient Greeks used trigonometry to study the sky at night. However, Babylonians used this science to find solutions for measuring the land rather than the sky. As per Mansfield, the tablet is an example of The Old Babylonian period’s cadastral document used for defining boundaries on land. He said, “In this case, it tells us legal and geometric details about a field that’s split after some of it was sold off.”

The Inheritance

Although 1,000 years may have passed since the invention of the tablets and Pythagoras’ birth in 570 B.C.E, experts have always known that these teachings were passed down to the Greeks by the Egyptians, who inherited them from Babylonians.

What Mansfield found surprising is how sophisticated the level of revelations was and that the Babylonians had discovered it so early on in human history. He concluded by saying that no one expected them to be using this logic and that it is akin to mathematics in its pure form, which was inspired by practical issues they faced back then.