Babylonian 'Algebra' from Crest of the Peacock

Upon reading this extract, I found it interesting to understand how the Babylonians were able to interpret word problems through the use of different images and symbols on the tablet. In the 4.7 example, we were able to see a solution distinction between the two groups and how we use an entirely different type of notation today. Alongside this, all this time learning the Quadratic Formula in school and I did not know that it was interpreted by the Babylonians when they had no formal algebraic system set in place. They were able to adopt different types of questions and solve up to three unknowns whether it be linear, quadratic or exponential. 

The system we adopted today was derived from their findings, however, the notation we use is much more generalized in my opinion. We use the same symbols such as 'x'. 'y', 'a', 'b', or 'c' for unknowns in most mathematical practices around the world today or even greek symbols in different areas of knowledge such as physics and therefore I do think that generalizing mathematic has worked in our favour and it would be extremely difficult to interpret different areas of mathematics or science if we did not continue to adopt this method. Everything we have built is based on the reasoning and understanding of interpretation from the past and thus, generalizing all the different theories from historical data to form a universal language has been beneficial to get to the functioning system we have today. 

In calculus, it would be extremely difficult to state general relationships without algebra. It can be solved using different methods of substitution and trial and error. However, in order to denote functions within calculus, we would, in turn, need to use algebraic methods when using the substitution method, therefore, bringing me back to my overall opinion that mathematics is based on adaptions and generalization that is aided by algebraic methodology. 

Comments

  1. Susan GerofskyNovember 11, 2020 at 12:33 PM

    Good thinking here, and glad to see that you caught up on this posting!

    ReplyDelete

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