Egyptian and Babylonian Mathematics

Given here two specific readings, one on Egyptian mathematics and the other on Babylonian mathematics. In fact there are two periods of Babylonian mathematics. We consider just the first. The second period, beginning about 300 BCE was somehat influenced by Greek accomplishments.

1. The History Egyptian Mathematics (~574KB)
2. The History of Old-Babylonian Mathematics. (~550KB)
3. Convert decimal expressions to sexagesimal

On the Web..

• Bibliography of Egyptian mathematics
• Bibliography of Babylonian mathematics
• Area vs Perimeter in ancient Babylon - How the quadratic equation may have originated.
• in the Bible, by Michael A. B. Deakin and Hans Lausch
• Egyptian treatment of quadrilaterals - applet by Scott Vaughen
• The non-Western roots of science - a review of 'Lost Discoveries' by Dick Teresi
  It is the claim of Teresi that many non European contributions to mathematics and science have been greatly overlooked in our culture. It is my view that this is not the case. As non European connections are found, there are promptly reported and reviewed.

Some files are long and make take a few minutes to download. To read and print them you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Each reading, in Acrobat (pdf) format, is a short paper on the aspect in question. Upon completing a reading, try to answer the questions that pertain to it.