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A Portrait of Old Babylonian Algebra and Its Kin

By:

Jens Hoyrup

Format:

Hardback

Series:

Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences

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Description

In the 1920s it was recognized, largely as a result of work by Otto Neugebauer and his colleagues that Babylonian cuneiform texts included many mathematical texts. These were chiefly concerned with metrology and computation, but some also appeared to deal with algebra. But then, what could have been the reasons that induced the Babylonians to work on, for example, second-degree equations? In this new examination of the texts, Jens Hoyrup proposes a different interpretation, based on the fact that the tablets are almost entirely students' workbooks. The knowledge of mathematics expressed in these tablets is entirely "practical," for use in surveying, accounting, and building, rather than theoretical. Hoyrup argues that the notion of algebraic manipulation, like other parts of a theoretical mathematics is indeed a later invention. Craftsmen, he argues, prefer to know how to solve a problem, rather than why the answer will be true, and it is only the latter attitude that characterizes mathematics; the former is, perhaps, more akin to modern engineering. The book provides a detailed reading of many tablets and a careful examination of the context in which they were produced.

Release date NZ

January 2nd, 2002

Author

Jens Hoyrup

Audiences

Professional & Vocational
Technical / Manuals

Illustrations

36 Illustrations, black and white; XIV, 462 p. 36 illus.

Pages

462

Series

Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences

Dimensions

156x234x26

ISBN-13

9780387953038

Product ID

2434592

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