Babylonians and Egyptians

[Guest]

This is for a math paper in which im writing, but having a hard time getting info/sources on this. Thanks for all your help

Were their concepts concerning rational numbers between zero and one similar or different?

 

[Gene]

Probably depends on the definition of "concepts." Babylonians probably didn't have a number zero. Only a place marker in their base 60 numbering system to show, for instance, that there were no 60^1s in 1*60^2+0*60^1+5*60^0 =
1~5₆₀ =
(105₆₀ =)
3605₁₀
They could, however, write the fraction 7/60, while an egyptian would have to write 1/9 + 1/180

 

[stapel]

Try looking up resources for "math history", rather than specifically "babylonian math history". Try your library, too.

Eliz.