Babylonian Mathematics Babylonian numbers diered from other early number systems in that they were positional.

Just as the rst two in the number 2,342 means something entirely dierent than the last two (it signies two thousand instead of just two), the order of the symbols used in the number representation matter. To help understand Babylonian numbers, we consider number bases. Number bases. Each digit in a number in modern notation represents a power of ten. For example, 7 542 represents the number 7(103 ) + 5(102 ) + 4(101 ) + 2(100 ) = 7(1000) + 5(100) + 4(10) + 2. This is familiar. Base ve numbers would work as follows: The number 3 2145 (the subscript indicates the base) would now represent (in base 10): 3 2145 = 3(53 ) + 2(52 ) + 1(51 ) + 4(50 ) = 3(125) + 2(25) + 1(5) + 4 = 434. So the expansion is in powers of 5. Note each digit by custom is allowed to be one of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 (not 5 or bigger); it turns out every positive integer has a unique expansion in powers of 5 if we follow that rule. Base two is perhaps more familiar (because it is used in computer science): We expand a number in powers of two, allowing only the digits 0 or 1 in the expansion. Thus 10110102 = 1 26 + 0 25 + 1 24 + 1 23 + 0 22 + 1 21 + 0 20 = 1(64) + 0(32) + 1(16) + 1(8) + 0(4) + 1(2) + 0 = 90. These numbers are usually called binary numbers. Also used in computer science are hexadecimal numbers, which are in base 16. This base is big enough so that we can no longer get by with the digits 0 through 9; we need sixteen symbols. So we use the symbols 0, 1, . . . , 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F where A represents 10, B represents 11; up to A which represents 15. So the hex number 7F 5A represents 7F 5A16 = 7(163 ) + 15(162 ) + 5(161 ) + 10(160 ) = 7(4096) + 15(256) + 5(16) + 10 = 32 602. (You might nd these numbers here and there if you look at the source code of a web document; six-digit hex numbers are often used to specify colors.) Babylonian sexagesimal numbers. We can now easily describe the Babylonian number system. It is a positional system where numbers are written in base 60. This dates to at 1

least 2000 BC. Babylonian writing used cuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters, produced by pressing a small writing tool into clay. Each digit of a Babylonian number was written as a small group of wedge marks; a vertical wedge had the value 1 while a horizontal wedge had a value of 10. Each digit of the number could by anything from 0 to 59. (Actually, they had no zero, so they either relied on context or left a little gap to indicate a missing digit.) We will use an adapted notation where each digit is given by a one or two digit base ten number, which we separate by commas: 6,53,39 = 6(602 ) + 53(601 ) + 39(600 ) = 6(3600) + 53(60) + 39 = 24 819.

Fractions in sexagesimal numbers. In base ten, a decimal fraction is an expression such as 3.1416. Of course, this is supposed to represent 3.1416 = 3(100 ) + 1(101 ) + 4(102 ) + 1(103 ) + 6(104 ) =3+
1 10

4 100

1 1 000

6 10 000 .

So the expansion uses negative powers of the base. The Babylonians represented fractions in exactly the same way, except they used negative powers of 60. Instead of a decimal point we will use a semicolon to separate the integer part from the fractional part of the expansion. So for example, 1, 6;15,45 would represent 45 + 3600 = 66.2625. the number 1(60) + 6 + 15(601 ) + 45(102 ). This would be 66 + 15 60 One interesting thing about Babylonian fractions is that more fractions terminate (do not 1 have an unending expansion). For example, the Babylonian fraction 0;20 is 20 60 = 3 . But 1 1 the decimal fraction for 3 is 3 = 0.3333 . In fact, the following fractions in Babylonian 1 1 notation also terminate (but do not in base ten): 1 = 0;15, 1 = 0;10, 12 = 0;5, 15 = 0;4, 4 6 1 1 j k = 0;2, and = 0;1. Decimal fractions terminate if theyre of the form m/ (2 5 ) 30 60 for positive integers m, j, k . But Babylonian fractions terminate if theyre of the form m/(2j 3k 5n ) for positive integers m, j, k, n. This makes Babylonian decimal fractions more convenient than ours; which is a possible reason why the Babylonians invented this system. Another reason they invented this system might be to do astronomical calculations: there are 360 days in a year (roughly). Our degrees-minutes-seconds system angle measurement appears to have originated in the use of Babylonian numbers (which scholars did heavy arithmetic with until the time of Copernicus), and our clocks appear to have inherited this system as well. Arithmetic in sexagesimal numbers. Addition, subtraction and multiplication would have been similar to how we do it. (The logic of our familiar algorithm for multiplication becomes clear if you write out a multiplication problem by expanding our decimal notation as explicit sums of powers of 10, and use the algebraic rule of distribution, c(a+b) = ca+cb.) 2

One important point to realize is that multiplication of fractions was exactly as dicult as multiplying whole numbers in this system. Division was done by multiplying by reciprocals; the Babylonians produced tables of various reciprocals. Babylonian algebra. Fixed verbal procedures were given that correspond to various formulas equivalent to the quadratic formula. Of course, they didnt use letters for unknowns (they didnt have letters to begin with); but they used generic words for quantities such as length or area in a way that makes it clear that they didnt think of these as literal lengths or areas, but instead as unknowns in an algebra problem. They didnt state formulas, but presented examples in a way that made it clear they knew that the procedure was general. One standard problem they solved was equivalent to nding x and y such that x + y = a and xy = b, where a and b were given. One cuneiform tablet gives the example: Solve x + y = 6;30 and xy = 7;30. The instructions given by the scribe are essentially as follows. First nd x+y = 3;15 2 and then nd 2 x+y = 10;33,45. 2 Then x+y 2 and then x+y 2 But this is
2 2

xy = 10;33,45 7;30 = 3;3,35

xy = 1;45.

xy = 1;45. 2

So we know (x + y )/2 = 3;15 and (x y )/2 = 1;45. If we add these we get x= and if we subtract, we get y= xy x+y = 3;15 1;45 = 1;30. 2 2 x+y xy + = 3;15 + 1;45 = 5 2 2

[This example is from A History of Mathematics, Second Edition, by Carl B. Boyer.] Note, to nd square roots, the Babylonians used tables or the approximate formula 2 a b = a b/2a. 3