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January 2000
SIMMER Presentation

”Problems and Puzzles in Babylonian Mathematics presented by
Prof. Craig G. Fraser (IHPST, University of Toronto)
on

Thursday, January 27, 2000, 6:00 - 9:00 p. m.
at The Fields Institute

The ancient Babylonians (ca. 1800 B.C.) possessed a sophisticated mathematics based on a positional base-sixty number system. Records of their mathematical achievements are found on clay tablets first unearthed by European archaeologists in the nineteenth century. Among other achievements the Babylonians were able to solve what we would today call quadratic equations and possessed rules for generating Pythagorean triplets of numbers.

Here are some of the notes, references, sample problems.



 



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