For example, I will write 60 like (1)(0).īabylonian numbers were written in a fashion similar to ours. Instead I will use parenthesis around normal base 10 numbers. I will not write out any more Babylonian numerals with their notation. The Babylonian number system has separate symbols for each number from one to 59: Of course, the Babylonians didn’t write it like that. In their base 60 number system, this would have been the way they thought about 1559.37: Number However, they are not truly positional number systems. Actually, base one number systems exist: tally marks use base one. We could have used any number other than zero or one. Now, we don’t have to 10 as our base as we did there. For example, in our base ten Arabic numerals, this is what we mean when we write the number 1559.37: Number Positional number systems (like the customary Arabic numerals) represent numbers as multiples of a base and powers of it. Not every number system used the same base, in fact, some used base 5, base 12, base 20, or even base 60! Worksheet - drawings of multiplication problems, one involving simple fractions, on two Babylonian tables to decipher.Numbers and systems for writing them have a very long and varied history. Worksheet - students will need to know about multiplication and fractions in base 60 Learning to multiply - the Babylonian way Worksheet - this follows on from Numbers in base 60 Worksheet - to follow-up the presentation Presentation - working with numbers in base 60 Worksheet - area of squares and triangles (counting squares is fine for this), symmetry, investigation
Presentation - make your own Babylonian tablet, complete with Babylonian numbers. You will need to work in cubits to start with! Worksheet - do a scale drawing of a Babylonian house or see how the area of a Babylonian house compares with a modern one by finding rectangular areas. If there was a fire or an earthquake tonight and your classroom was destroyed, what would a maths archaeologist find? What might s/he think about your maths class? Video clip 1: Introductory video clip (1 min 47 secs)
#USING THE BABYLONIAN NUMERALS. DOWNLOAD#
Download all video clips (zip file, 53MB)Īdditional notes and drawings from tablets for anyone who wants to know a bit more.We hope that it will be girl-friendly, without being boy-unfriendly, and that it could be used as a means of bridging the transition between primary school and secondary school, perhaps forming part of a Transition Day, or a topic which could be started in the primary school then completed in the secondary school.Īny of these resources can be used alone - although students may find it easier to understand them if they have seen the preceding video clip(s). This resource pack is aimed at children aged 10-12. Answers and additional notes are also provided. The resources in this pack complement the video clips, providing activities designed to help students understand the similarities and differences between maths then and now. Eleanor also demonstrates the difference between how we generally draw a triangle now and then, and how the Babylonian style of writing - cuneiform - relates to their triangles. She demonstrates clay tablets on which Babylonian children worked at their multiplication tables - in base 60! Through the video clips and follow-up resources, we can find out how they did arithmetic and how they learnt their tables. But what maths did they learn and how did they learn it? In this resource pack, Dr Eleanor Robson, shows us how we can find out about an ancient civilisation through the objects they left behind. 4000 years ago, children in school were learning maths just as they do now.
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