HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

Egyptian and Babylonian Mathematics.

Egyptian mathematics, despite the hieroglyphic inscribed on hundreds of temples comes from two papyri containing collections of mathematical problems with their solutions. These papyri, the Ahmes and the Moscow, date from a millenium before the earliest glimmers of Greek philosophy and mathematics. They consist mostly of applied problems written for study by the young student. Through them we see the kinds of problems of interest to the Egyptian builders and empire makers. Many are logistic problems of the type needed to feed a large army or work force. What we do not see is any sort of codification of ideas into principles.

Babylonian mathematics, in many ways more sophisticated, was also a technology in the service of the state. Though there is some evidence of deep investigations in astronomy in later, Hellenistic times, the early mathematical evidence is very much applied. However, the Babylonian counting, was positional, and this is regarded by many including Otto Neugebauer as one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It permitted the Babylonians to create indefinitely large numbers with great economy of writing. It permitted a wider band with of numbers for computation. We also see evidence of interpolation of tables to solve nonlinear equations and a rather elegant method for computing the square root of two.

The study of the mathematics of these early civilization will stand in stark contrast to that of the Greeks, who were able to develop the model of abstract mathematics via geometry which was to serve as the model of mathematical achievement until essentially modern times.

By: Nur Najihah Bt Hashbullishman