Related papers: Sexagesimal Calculations in Ancient Sumer
In the middle of the third millennium BC the Sumerians must have noticed that the reciprocal of the number 7,in contrast to the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,and 6,could not be expressed by a finite sexagesimal fraction but it recurred every three…
We will discuss about a possible method of using the cubit rod by the architects and the surveyors of Ancient Egypt to measure and draw lengths, comparing it with the other interpretations present in Literature. Instead of the modern…
How were surfaces evaluated before the invention of the sexagesimal place value notation in Mesopotamia? This chapter examines a group of five tablets containing tables for surfaces of squares and rectangles dated to the Early Dynastic…
This paper presents a simple geometrical fact which could relate to the history of mathematics and astronomy. This fact shows a natural link between the circle and the multiples of 6 and it makes it possible to obtain a simple…
This study reconstructs the origin of a constant, here called $\Xi$ (Xi), as a primary scaling factor in Old Babylonian mathematics and astronomy. $\Xi$ arises from the practical necessity of precise measurements on the sky or a circle,…
Ratios and coefficients are used to simplify calculations. For geometric usage these values also called function values. Like in Egypt also in Babylon such a value system can be shown. The reconstructed calculation sequence, of the Plimpton…
There is little known about the methods used by the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians to arrive at their recorded estimates of the value of Pi. A surprisingly accurate estimate of Pi was recently revealed coded within a verse in the book of…
We discuss the babylonian method of extracting the root square of a number, from the point of view of modern mathematics. We also speculate that the babylonian mathematics was rich enough for a generalization of this method, despite the…
The Great Pyramids of Egypt hide mathematic information unknown up to date. The measurements of the three Great Pyramids of Egypt at Giza show that Egyptians knew how to calculate the circumference, the volume and the area of the sphere…
In this paper I shall show that the formula 0:4,48 times circumference squared for the area of a circle, which occurs in a few Babylonian mathematical texts, can be traced back to at the latest the twenty-third century BCE.
This paper explores and proves the one-seventh area triangle using a purely algebraic approach as opposed to a geometric one. A triangle set purely in the complex plane is used so that we can utilise features of the complex number system to…
This article studies three-dimensional objects and their volumes in Elamite mathematics, particularly those found in the Susa Mathematical Tablet No.\,14 (\textbf{SMT No.\,14}). In our discussion, we identify some basic solids whose volumes…
This paper looks at how ancient mathematicians (and especially the Pythagorean school) were faced by problems/paradoxes associated with the infinite which led them to juggle two systems of numbers: the discrete whole/rationals which were…
I describe a simple method to calculate Earth dimensions using only local measurements and observations. I used modern technology (a digital photo camera and Google Earth) but the exact same method can be used without any aid, with naked…
Pythagoras' theorem, the area of a triangle as one half the base times the height, and Heron's formula are amongst the most important and useful results of ancient Greek geometry. Here we look at all three in a new and improved light, using…
Among the first devices used to measure the time we find the sundials and the water-clocks, as told by Vitruvius in his book on the Architecture. The sundials work because of the shadows cast by a rod or pole, the gnomon, on their…
Cooking possesses a system of units of measurement, that includes measures of volumes based on pre-metric units. This paper discusses the cooking measures and compares their features with those of the ancient Roman measures of capacity.
Sophisticated computation methods were developed 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia in the context of scribal schools. The basics of the computation can be detected in clay tablets written by young students educated in these scribal schools. At…
One of the greatest achievements of Greek mathematics is the proof that the square root of 2 is irrational. It has not been thought that the Babylonians appreciated the concept of irrationality and certainly that they did not prove that the…
Late-Babylonian mathematics (450-100 BC), represented by some 60 cuneiform tablets from Babylon and Uruk, is incompletely known compared to its abundantly preserved, well-studied Old-Babylonian predecessor (1800-1600 BC). With the present…