Overview
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.
Full Product Details
Author: Jens Høyrup
Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition: 2002 ed.
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 2.60cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 1.880kg
ISBN: 9780387953038
ISBN 10: 0387953035
Pages: 462
Publication Date: 02 January 2002
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
From the reviews: J. Hoyrup Lengths, Widths, Surfaces A Portrait of Old Babylonian Algebra and its Kin A valuable addition to the literature of the ancient Babylonians, the subsequent Seleucid mathematics and their relations with other (later) mathematics. Drawing on studies of the culture in which the texts were developed, it contains extensive 'conformal translations' of the most important texts, as well as analyses of them and interpretations of the pictures that emerge. --THE AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Hoyrup has drawn together and updated the key insights of his intellectual journey of the past 15 years and presented them in one unified, handsomely produced volume. ! it contains a wealth of information and can be minded by the interested reader for years to come. It is a worthy testament to a career of deep scholarship. (Duncan J. Melville, Historia Mathematica, Vol. 33, 2006)
J. HA, yrup <p>Lengths, Widths, Surfaces <p>A Portrait of Old Babylonian Algebra and its Kin <p> A valuable addition to the literature of the ancient Babylonians, the subsequent Seleucid mathematics and their relations with other (later) mathematics. Drawing on studies of the culture in which the texts were developed, it contains extensive 'conformal translations' of the most important texts, as well as analyses of them and interpretations of the pictures that emerge. a THE AUSTRALIAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY
