BABYLONIAN MATHEMATICS

The Babylonians and Egyptians had a similar system of math, but each Babylon had a slightly more advanced system.

To show how advanced they were, they could extract square roots, solve linear systems, and solved cubic equations. Though their geometry was incorrect most of the time.

All of their numbers were consistent of two symbols:

FOR EXAMPLE

• vvvvv=5

The Babylonians had a base number system made of 60 whole numbers.

The reason that we have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hours, and 360 degrees for a full rotation is all due to the Babylonians basing their number system on 60

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Despite having sixty base numbers, the Babylonians never used any form of zero.

The Babylonians used the formula ab = [(a + b)2 - a2 - b2]/2 to make multiplication a bit less difficult. ab = [(a + b)2 - (a - b)2]/4 shows that a table of squares is all that is needed to multiply numbers.

The Babylonians could not create a system of long division, and instead had to use a/b = a × (1/b). This rendered a table of reciprocals the only thing needed.

SOURCES

• http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/smt310-handouts/babylon/babylon.htm
• http://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/history/babylon/babylon.html
• http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics.html