Babylonian Mathamatics
The Babylonians lived in Mesopotamia, a plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This region had been where the Sumerians flourished before 3500 BC. This advanced civilization built cities and had the knowledge of irrigation systems, legal systems, even postal service. Around 2300 BC the Akkadians invaded the area and joined the Sumerian culture with there own. The Akkadians invented the abacus and tried to create a mathematical method but did not succeed. By 2000 BC the Sumerians revolted and took over the Akkadian rule. Soon enough, the Babylonians invaded Mesopotamia and defeated the Sumerians, and by 1900 BC established their capital at Babylon. Babylonians came up with the number system based on 60, which is known and the sexagesimal system. They used ideas from the Sumerians and Akkadians mathematics but formed a new system greater then any previously. At first, people weren¡¯t too fond of this new system. They thought it was too complicated, but then they found out that like our system today, which consists of 9 symbols and zero to stand for an empty place, they only had to learn 2 symbols to create their system based on 60. That made it much easier to take grasp, on learning it and understanding it.
It is not that easy to understand these calculations by the scribe unless we translate them into modern algebraic notation. We have to solve To solve a quadratic equation the Babylonians used the standard formula. They considered two types of quadratic equations:
Some topics in this essay:
Jupiter Saturn,
Similarly Babylonian,
Sumerians Akkadians,
Theon Alexandria,
BC Babylonians,
Otto Neugebauer,
Tigris Euphrates,
BC Akkadians,
Sumerians Babylonians,
Moritz Cantor,
based 60,
system based,
system based 60,
= 1,
sexagesimal system,
sexagesimal system based,
bx =,
1 4/9,
= b/22,
b/22 +,
2 3,
n3 + n2,
= b/22 +,
1 48,
0 33 20,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 2212
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
