Early Evidence of Mathematics

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Early Evidence of Mathematics

• Mark S. Hovis
• Math 5008
• July 18, 2008

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Early Evidence of Mathematics
Babylonian 2000 BCE Two tablets found in 1854
at Senkerah on the Euphrates date from 2000 B.C.
They give squares of the numbers up to 59 and
cubes up to 32.
Chinese 100 BCE In 1984 the Suan shu shu (A
Book on Arithmetic) dating from around 180 BC was
discovered.It is a book written on bamboo strips
and was found near Jiangling in Hubei province.
Egyptian 1850 BCE In 1858, Scottish
Egyptologist Henry Rhind purchased a papyrus in
Luxor. The papyrus, a scroll about 6 metres long
and 1/3 of a metre wide, was written around 1650
BC by the scribe Ahmes who states that he is
copying a document which is 200 years older. It
contains 87 problems.
Greek 300 BCE Euclid of Alexandria writes his
treatise on geometry The Elements. Numerous
translations exist from previous copies, but the
original does not exist.
Indian 800 BCE Vedic mathematicians write the
Sulbasutras, which contains rules such as the
method of constructing a square of area equal to
a given rectangle and the constructing a square
of area equal to that of a given circle.
Arabic 813 AD Al'Khwarizmi writes his algebra
treatise Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala which gives
us the word algebra and can be considered as the
first book to be written on algebra. The word
algorithm derives from his name.
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Work Sited (74)

• Katz, History of Mathematics 2007
• Mactutor
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopic
  s/Babylonian_mathematics.html
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopi
  cs/Egyptian_mathematics.html
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biograph
  ies/Al-Khwarizmi.html
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopic
  s/Chinese_overview.html
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biograph
  ies/Euclid.html
• http//www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopic
  s/Indian_mathematics.html