Babylonian mathematics

<p>Babylonian mathematics (also known as Assyro-Babylonian mathematics) is the mathematics developed or practiced by the people of <a href="/facts/Mesopotamia/f0mmbhTK">Mesopotamia</a>, as attested by sources mainly surviving from the <a href="/facts/First_Babylonian_dynasty/qAa4pT2M">Old Babylonian</a> period (1830–1531 BC) to the <a href="/facts/Seleucid_Empire/NSYMLBYa">Seleucid</a> from the last three or four centuries BC. With respect to content, there is scarcely any difference between the two groups of texts. Babylonian mathematics remained constant, in character and content, for over a millennium.
</p><p>In contrast to the scarcity of sources in <a href="/facts/Egyptian_mathematics/Uuz7Cms7">Egyptian mathematics</a>, knowledge of Babylonian mathematics is derived from hundreds of <a href="/facts/Clay_tablet/9mbScsAn">clay tablets</a> unearthed since the 1850s. Written in <a href="/facts/Cuneiform/MgIQoGu8">cuneiform</a>, tablets were inscribed while the clay was moist, and baked hard in an oven or by the heat of the sun. The majority of recovered clay tablets date from 1800 to 1600 BC, and cover topics that include <a href="/facts/Fraction_(mathematics)/ghnQE9B3">fractions</a>, <a href="/facts/Algebra/nMdqczjo">algebra</a>, <a href="/facts/Quadratic_equation/9IMnkJAT">quadratic</a> and <a href="/facts/Cubic_equation/Eqm3HCMx">cubic equations</a> and the <a href="/facts/Pythagorean_theorem/Lh6x2Kr5">Pythagorean theorem</a>. The Babylonian tablet <a href="/facts/YBC_7289/wA4I1Ke3">YBC 7289</a> gives an approximation of 
  
    
      
        
          
            2
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}}
  
 accurate to three significant sexagesimal digits (about six significant decimal digits).
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Babylonian mathematics open-in-new

Babylonian mathematics