history of mathematics - National STEM Centre

16
The Babylonians
Until almost 300 BC the Babylonians had no clear way to indicate an 'empty'
position; that is, they did not have a zero symbol, although they sometimes left a
space where a zero was intended.
2 Write the numbers 156 and 7236 in Babylonian notation.
3 What might the number YY mean now?
You can conclude that the Babylonian invention of the zero - possibly the oldest
zero in history, which they wrote as an empty space or ^ - is a logical result of
their positional number system.
The zero was introduced to indicate an empty position inside a number, or at the
beginning of a number, but it was not used at the end of a number.
In spite of its deficiencies, the sexagesimal system used by the Babylonians offered
many advantages. The number 60 has many factors which make it good for dealing
with fractions, and its large size makes it useful for dealing with large numbers. It
was used by Greek and Arab astronomers for many centuries. This is why a
sexagesimal system is still used to measure time and angles.
4 Decipher the Larsa tablet shown in Figure 2.6. Suggest what the cuneiform
words (columns two and four) might mean.
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