A History of Mathematics- From Mesopotamia to Modernity

16 A History ofMathematics Fig. 2Tablet VAT16773 (c. 2500bce).; numerical tally of different types of pigs. Each dynasty lasted ...

276 Index infinitesimals 162 Leibniz’s use 173, 174 Newton’s use 170 present day use 182–3 infinities 151–3 use by Galileo 154, ...

BabylonianMathematics 17 poorer, largely because papyrus, the Egyptian writing-material, lasts so badly; there are two major mat ...

Index 277 Ma Yize 95 machine construction, Heron 63–4, 65 machines, curve-drawing 150, 156 MacLane 250–1 Madhava 168 Mandelbrot ...

18 A History ofMathematics (a) (b) Fig. 3The ‘stone-weighing’ tablet YBC4652; (a) photograph and (b) line drawing. arguments on ...

278 Index Pascal 165 use of the infinite 151 use in Chinese mathematics 92, 95 Peano, axiom systems 206 pentagon, construction o ...

BabylonianMathematics 19 As you can see, from tablet to drawing to written Akkadian text to translation we have stages over whic ...

Index 279 Ribet, Ken 255 Ricci, Matteo 98 Richards, Joan 193, 207 Riemann, Bernhard 191 On the Hypotheses which lie at the basis ...

20 A History ofMathematics Exercise 2.(which will be dealt with below). Clearly what we have here, in the translation, is a ques ...

280 Index table of powers, al-Samaw’al 118 tables, use in Islamic mathematics 118 , 119 , 122, 129 table texts 20 tablets, Babyl ...

BabylonianMathematics 21 problem A, then do procedure B. The ‘point’ of the sum, then, is not mysterious, and indeed we can reco ...

Index 281 Yukti-bhasa 168 Youschkevitch, A. P. 3, 103–4 ab ̄u-l-Waf ̄a’ 107 al-Kash ̄ı 117 Islamic work on parallels 196 Khayyam ...

22 A History ofMathematics There is probably better conservation of tablets now than when the above was written, but the long de ...

BabylonianMathematics 23 Fig. 4The basic cuneiform numbers from 1 to 60. Fig. 5How larger cuneiform numbers are formed. You can ...

24 A History ofMathematics This way of writing numbers is so advanced and sophisticated that it has impressed most commentators, ...

BabylonianMathematics 25 unweighed stone, in this case. The Egyptians were using the same idea a little afterwards, and may have ...

26 A History ofMathematics requesting a research grant) to results which were thought useless at the time and afterwards discove ...

BabylonianMathematics 27 measurements of the wall (length, width, and height), and ask how many bricks. Naturally, the OB scribe ...

28 A History ofMathematics admired for solving quadratic equations, can we extend a similar recognition to the scribes of Fara f ...

BabylonianMathematics 29 by setting out the area: 1 (šár-gal) 1 (šar’u) 1 (šár) 1 (bùr) field surface Then follow the ‘targets’; ...