Concept
Babylonian mathematics
Overview
Babylonian mathematics (also known as Assyro-Babylonian mathematics) is the mathematics developed or practiced by the people of Mesopotamia, as attested by sources surviving mainly from the Old Babylonian period (1830–1531 BC) to the Seleucid period from the last three or four centuries BC. With respect to content, there is scarcely any difference between the two groups of texts. Babylonian mathematics remained constant, in character and content, for over a millennium.
In contrast to the scarcity of sources in Ancient Egyptian mathematics, knowledge of Babylonian mathematics is derived from hundreds of clay tablets unearthed since the 1850s. Written in cuneiform, tablets were inscribed while the clay was moist, and baked hard in an oven or by the heat of the sun. The majority of recovered clay tablets date from 1800 to 1600 BC, and cover topics that include fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations and the Pythagorean theorem. The Babylonian tablet YBC 7289 gives an approximation of
2
{\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}}
accurate to three significant sexagesimal digits (about six significant decimal digits).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
192, and as to the resources of the Babylonians how great they are, I shall show by many other proofs and among them also by this:—For the support of the great king and his army, apart from the regular tribute the whole land of which he is ruler has been distributed into portions. Now whereas twelve months go to make up the year, for four of these he has his support from the territory of Babylon, and for the…
Herodotus, The History of Herodotus — Volume 1
States what Babylonian mathematics is.
Mathematics originally signified any kind of discipline or learning, but now it is taken for that science which teaches or contemplates whatever is capable of being numbered or measured. That part of the mathematics which relates to numbers only, is called _arithmetic_; and that which is concerned about measure in general, whether length, breadth, motion, force, &c., is called _geometry_. As to the usefulness of…
Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
States what Babylonian mathematics is.
In this employment the algebraic letters are called the ‘arguments’ of the function, or sometimes they are called the ‘variables.’ Then, for instance, if an angle is represented by an algebraical letter, as standing for its numerical measure in terms of a given unit, Trigonometry is absorbed into this new algebra. Algebra thus develops into the general science of analysis in which we consider the properties of…
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the modern world
States what Babylonian mathematics is.
Philosophers who discussed Babylonian mathematics
Related ideas
- Princeton University Press
- Interest
- Algebra
- Mesopotamia
- Numeral system
- Planet
- Ancient Near East
- Pythagorean theorem
- Seleucid Empire
- Arithmetic
- Square root of 2
- Babylonian astronomy
- Babylonia
- Celestial sphere
- Decimal
- Ecliptic
Place in the tradition
Part of Pythagoreanism.