(Article I.2.) A Note on Old Babylonian Computational Techniques

Jens Høyrup ()
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Jens Høyrup: Roskilde University, Section for Philosophy and Science Studies

Chapter Chapter 3 in Selected Essays on Pre- and Early Modern Mathematical Practice, 2019, pp 59-66 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Analysis of the errors in two Old Babylonian “algebraic” problems shows (1) that the computations were performed on a device where additive contributions were no longer identifiable once they had entered the computation; (2) that this device must have been some kind of counting board or abacus where numbers were represented as collections of calculi; (3) that units and tens were represented in distinct ways, perhaps by means of different calculi.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-19258-7_3

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