UNIT 1:

THE DEVELOPMENT
OF MATHEMATICS:
ANCIENT PERIOD
UNIT 1:
Origins of
Mathematics: Egypt
and Babylonia

Mathematics of
Ancient Greece

Islamic, Hindu, and

Chinese Mathematics
Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, the students will be able

to:

a. identify the different number system of ancient

Egypt and Babylonia;
b. differentiate Babylonian and ancient Egyptian
number system; and
c. perform mathematical operations by utilizing
symbols and systems from ancient mathematics
as discussed.
EGYPT AND
BABYLONIA
ORIGIN OF MATHEMATICS
 BABYLONIA
1800-600 BC
• Babylonia is a
civilization that
developed in
Mesopotamia around
1800 BCE, succeeding
the Sumerian
civilization, which had
collapsed by then.
• The Babylonians used the cuneiform system of
writing on clay tablets with reed styluses.
• Archaeologists discovered hundreds of
clay tablets in the 19th century that
were related to mathematics. The dates
correspond to the first Babylonian
dynasty (1800-1500 BC) under the
authority of Hammurabi.
 Babylonian Mathematics
• Sumerian mathematics developed to meet
bureaucratic needs throughout the settlement
and development of agriculture, possibly as early
as the 6th millennium BCE. It was used to
measure plots of land, taxation, and harvest
measurement

• Around 2300 BC, the Akkadians invaded

Mesopotamia and adopted Sumerian culture until
2100 BC.
• Starting as early as the 4th millennium BCE, they
began using a small clay cone to represent one,
a clay ball for ten, and a large cone for sixty.

• Over the course of the third millennium, these

objects were replaced by cuneiform equivalents
so that numbers could be written with the same
stylus that was being used for the words in the
text.
• They used a base-60 number system
called the "sexagesimal system. "

• Has only two characters in 59

different symbols, and has no symbol
for number zero
 Babylonian Number System
• SEXAGISIMAL SYSTEM is a base-60 number system.

• The symbol for 1 is used again in 60

• Babylonian numbers used a true place-value system,

where digits written in the left column represented
larger values, much as in the modern decimal system,
although of course using base 60 not base 10.
Vertical :
the character for
number 1

• The reed is
turned with the
thick end up
and the
pointing end
down, it is the
symbol for 1.
Horizontal :
the character for number 10

• The reed is turned with the thick

end on the right and the pointing
end to the left, it is the symbol for
10.
• Counting by tens; 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
12,345 is represented as;

1 × 10⁴ + 2 × 10³ + 3 × 10² + 4 × 10 + 5

In a base-10 number system.
________________________________________
in sexagesimals, 60 × n where 1 ≤ n ≤ 59

1 × 60³ + 57 × 60² + 46 × 60 + 40
an example from a cuneiform tablet (actually
AO 17264 in the Louvre collection in Paris) in
which the calculation to square 147 is carried
out. In sexagesimal 147 = 2,27 and squaring
gives the number 21609 = 6,0 9.,
Fractions
Any unit can be divided into parts of a lower
place value, by dividing it by 60.

Just as,
• 1 minute = 60 seconds
• so 1/2 of a minute = 30 seconds
Example:
To write 5h 25' 30" , i.e. 5 hours, 25 minutes, 30 seconds,
to write a sexagesimal fraction,

as the notation 5; 25, 30 for this sexagesimal number

 0.125
________________________________________________________
Babylonian sexagesimal fraction 0;
7 30 represented ;

In Babylonian system, numbers 60 times larger of 60

times smaller are all written the same way.
 Place value of integers and fraction

Now we have already suggested the notation that

we will use to denote a sexagesimal number with
fractional part. To illustrate 10,12 5;1,52,30
represents the number
Which in our notation is

If I write 10,12,5,1,52,30
without having a notation
for the "sexagesimal point"
then it could mean any of:
 Pi in Ancient Babylonia
The ancient Babylonians
calculated the area of a circle
by taking 3 times the square
of its radius, which gave a
value of pi = 3.
One Babylonian tablet (ca.
1900–1680 BC) indicates a
value of 3.125 for π, which is a
closer approximation.
 Pythagoras's Theory in Babylonian
Mathematics
In J O'Connor and E F Robertson's Article (2000), some
Babylonian tablets have some connection with Pythagoras's
theorem.
A translation of a Babylonian tablet which is preserved in the
British museum goes as follows:

• 4 is the length and 5 is the diagonal. What is the breadth?

• Its size is not known.
• 4 times 4 is 16.
• You take 16 from 25 and
there remains 9.
• What times what shall I take
in order to get 9 ?
• 3 times 3 is 9.
• 3 is the breadth.
 Pythagoras's
Theory in
Babylonian
Mathematics
Plimpton 322 Cuneiform tablet c,
1800 BC

What perfect squares can be

written as sums of two squares?

i.e Find integers solution

a 2 + b 2 = c2
 Pythagoras's
Theory in
Babylonian
Mathematics
Plimpton 322 Cuneiform tablet c,
1800 BC

What perfect squares can be

written as sums of two squares?

i.e Find integers solution

a 2 + b 2 = c2
 Pythagoras's Theory in
Babylonian Mathematics
• Assuming that the first number is 1;
24,51,10 then converting this to a
decimal gives 1.414212963, while
√2 = 1.414213562.

• Calculating 30 × [ 1;24,51,10 ] gives

42;25,35 which is the second number.
The diagonal of a square of side 30 is
found by multiplying 30 by the
approximation to √2.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Why did Babylonians use base-60?
• Keeping with time
The Babylonians divided the day into 24
hours, each hour into 60 minutes, each
minute into 60 seconds

• Astronomy
Time-keeping and detailed astronomical
observations came from Babylonians.
• If Base 10;
Base-10 only has 1, 2, and 5 as its factors,
unlike in base-60 that can be factored into 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, and 30.

• Sumerian Number System

Babylonians Inherited the idea of base-60
positional number system of the Sumerians
before them, and developed its concept of
sexagesimal number system.
Theon of Alexandria (335 - 405 AD)
60 was the smallest number divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 5 so the number of divisors was maximized.

However, if that is the reason, A base of 12 would

seem a more likely candidate, yet no major
civilization seems to have come up with that
base. (Although, in old British, measures there
were twelve inches in a foot, twelve pennies in a
shilling etc.
 Otto Neugebaeur (1899 - 1990)
Neugebaeur proposed a theory based on the
weights and measures that the Sumerians used.
• a decimal counting system was modified to
base 60 to allow for dividing weights and
measures into thirds.
• However, although Neugebauer may be
correct, the counter argument would be that
the system of weights and measures was a
consequence of the number system rather
than visa versa.
• Several theories have been based on astronomical events.
The suggestion that 60 is the product of the number of
months in the year (moons per year) with the number of
planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) again
seems far fetched as a reason for base 60.

• According to a historian of mathematics Moritz Cantor.

That the year was thought to have 360 days was suggested
as a reason for the number base of 60.
 Sexagesimal used today

Keeping time in hours, Measuring angles in

minutes, and seconds degrees minutes, and
seconds Time system
 1 hour = 60 minutes 1° = 60’
 1 minute = 60 seconds 1’ = 60”
 1 hour = 3600 seconds 1° = 3600”
ANCIENT
EGYPT
ANCIENT EGYPT
(3100 - 300 BC)

One of the world's earliest

great civilizations located
in Northeast Africa. -
Situated and indebted in
the Nile (Ar or Aur) valley.

"Without the Nile, there would be no Egypt" (Haney,

2012) -During this period, they had agriculture,
writing, and number system.
• Archaeologists discovered hundreds of
clay tablets in the 19th century that
were related to mathematics. The dates
correspond to the first Babylonian
dynasty (1800-1500 BC) under the
authority of Hammurabi.
 Nile River to Civilization
• The Nile river vital waters enabled regions of
Egypt to sprout in the midst of a desert.
• The predictable Nile that flooded every rainy
season was key to developing the study of
astronomy to provide calendar information.
• Prosperous agriculture had been developed
making heavy use of the regular wet and dry
periods of the year.
 Hieroglyphics
• Hieroglyphic writing, comes from
the Greek word, "hieroglyphikos"
meaning, "sacred carving"
• The Egyptians had a writing system
based on hieroglyphs from around
3000 BC.
• Egyptian hieroglyphs are little
pictures representing words.
 Hieroglyphics
The Egyptians adorned the insides
of their temples, monuments and
tombs with hieroglyphic writing and
wrote it on papyrus, an ancient
paper made from reeds.
Hieratics
Hieratics is the cursive form script of
Egyptian writing. Hieratic means
priestly writing in Greek.
Hieroglyphics Hieratics
 EGYPTIAN
NUMERALS
• A system of numbers emerged
from hieroglyphics.
• A number was written as a picture
of its component.
• The base of the system is 10
EGYPTIAN
NUMERALS

Egyptian numeral Hieroglyphics

EGYPTIAN
NUMERALS
Fraction

Fractions to the ancient Egyptians were limited to unit

fractions (with the exception of the frequently used ⅔ and
less frequently used ¾. A unit fraction is of the form ¹/n where
n is an integer and these were represented in numeral
hieroglyphs by placing the symbol representing a "mouth" ,
which meant "part" , above the number.
Cubit Rod
• A cubit is an ancient measurement of length. While
the common cubit was the length of the forearm
from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger –
usually around 45.7 cm, the "royal cubit" was
slightly longer:
Moscow Mathematical
Papyrus
• Often called the Golenischev
papyrus after the man who
purchased it. The Moscow
papyrus is now in the Museum of
Fine Arts in Moscow, while the
Rhind papyrus is in the British
Museum in London. The Moscow
papyrus contains twenty-five math
problems.
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
• The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus is
named after the Scottish Egyptologist
Henry Rhind, who purchased it in Luxor in
1858. The papyrus, a scroll about 6 metres
long and ⅓ of a metre wide, was written
around 1650 BC by the scribe Ahmes who
states that he is copying a document
which is 200 years older. The Rhind
papyrus contains eighty-seven problems
Pi in Ancient Egypt
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
 Ahmes' Method
• "Cut off 1/9 of a diameter and construct a square
upon the remainder; this has the same area as
the circle."
• π = 256/81 =π3.16049
 Reporters: Cornelio, Mary Joy O.​
THANK YOU FOR Olequino, John Lloyd​
Members: Arguelles, Mervin​

LISTENING Aviso, Jerome​

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 THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING

https://mathandmind.com/articles/sumerian-and-babylonian-mathematics
Sumerian and Babylonian Mathematics. (n.d.). Math and Mind.
https://mathandmind.com/articles/sumerian-and-babylonian-mathematics
Babylonian mathematics. (n.d.). Maths History.
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Babylonian_mathematics/
Kiger, P. J., & Kiger, P. J. (2023, July 27). Why the Nile River Was So Important to Ancient Egypt. HISTORY.
https://www.history.com/news/ancient-egypt-nile-river
Gill, N. (2019, July 3). Babylonian mathematics and the Base 60 system. ThoughtCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-we-still-use-babylonian-mathematics-116679 Reporters: Cornelio, Mary Joy O.​
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a2yC2k5YpVwgWeh3WgJyMMUDcxLZNXag/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a0NPAXIA1VSrsovPYySS-VLdKF8AC5gi/view?usp=drivesdk Olequino, John Lloyd​
Members: Arguelles, Mervin​
Aviso, Jerome​
Gavina, Joffer Cris​
Pallesco, Mark Jyuse