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The majority of recovered clay tablets date from 1800 to 1600 BC, and cover topics that include fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations and the Pythagorean theorem. The Babylonian tablet YBC 7289 gives an approximation of 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}} accurate to three significant sexagesimal digits (about six significant decimal digits).
An Old Babylonian tablet (Strasbourg 363) seeks the solution of a quadratic equation. [1] c. 1800 BC: The Plimpton 322 tablet gives a table of Pythagorean triples in Babylonian Cuneiform script. [2] 1800 BC: Berlin Papyrus 6619 (19th dynasty) contains a quadratic equation and its solution. [3] [4] 800 BC
Figure 1. Plots of quadratic function y = ax 2 + bx + c, varying each coefficient separately while the other coefficients are fixed (at values a = 1, b = 0, c = 0). A quadratic equation whose coefficients are real numbers can have either zero, one, or two distinct real-valued solutions, also called roots.
In stage 2, the well-attested Old Babylonian method of completing the square is used to solve what is effectively the system of equations b − a = 0.25, ab = 0.75. [6] Geometrically this is the problem of computing the lengths of the sides of a rectangle whose area A and side-length difference b − a are known, which was a recurring problem ...
Equally important as the use or lack of symbolism in algebra was the degree of the equations that were addressed. Quadratic equations played an important role in early algebra; and throughout most of history, until the early modern period, all quadratic equations were classified as belonging to one of three categories.
2100 BC: The concept of area is first recognized in Babylonian clay tablets, [5] and 3-dimensional volume is discussed in an Egyptian papyrus. This begins the study of geometry. 2100 BC: Quadratic equations, in the form of problems relating the areas and sides of rectangles, are solved by Babylonians. [5]
Other topics covered by Babylonian mathematics include fractions, algebra, quadratic and cubic equations, and the calculation of regular numbers, and their reciprocal pairs. [29] The tablets also include multiplication tables and methods for solving linear, quadratic equations and cubic equations, a remarkable achievement for the time. [30]
This is a timeline of pure and applied mathematics history.It is divided here into three stages, corresponding to stages in the development of mathematical notation: a "rhetorical" stage in which calculations are described purely by words, a "syncopated" stage in which quantities and common algebraic operations are beginning to be represented by symbolic abbreviations, and finally a "symbolic ...