Insights into Mathematics | OB surveying, number systems and Si.427 | Old Babylonian mathematics & Plimpton 322 | N J Wildberger @njwildberger | Uploaded 3 years ago | Updated 2 hours ago
Recently Daniel Mansfield from UNSW published a new analysis of the Old Babylonian (OB) tablet Si.427 which is a field plan from around Sippar, in what is now modern Iraq. We want to describe some of his findings, and in this preliminary video we introduce the topic of surveying in ancient Mesopotamia, and discuss the important role that their sexagesimal number system played in both their mathematics and geometry.

To appreciate just how novel their arithmetic was, we talk a little about our modern number systems by way of comparison and contrast. And we bring out these differences by looking at the important problem of scaling triangles to fit required shapes to given data.

A UNSW news item about Daniel's work: https://news.unsw.edu.au/en/australian-mathematician-reveals-oldest-applied-geometry.

Video Contents:
00:00 Introduction
00:56 Old Babylonian period
01:47 OB Surveying
05:04 OB geometry (Basic shapes)
06:48 Scalling and similarity
08:25 OB sexagesimal (base 60) system
11:09 Our number systems
16:19 Practical problem (scalling a given triangle)
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55C7C83781CF4316
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5A714C94D40392AB
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85BhzJ-oWNug1YtUjfWp1qAp
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85Bfc-S4WHvTIM7E-ir3nAOf
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85DB7CzoFWvA920NES3g8tJH
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85CN9oJ4gYkuSQQhAtpIucuI
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIljB45xT85DWUiFYYGqJVtfnkUFWkKtP
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Here are the Wild Egg Maths Playlists (some available only to Members!)

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz4rKFN541wFKvKPSg5Ea6XB
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz7hk_Kzj4zDF_kUXBCtiGn6
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz5j1BJdXBw1MFst_nQAqzZ_
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz5HWgaVkhIwpGVKi6fciRxW
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youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz6VcJQ5xcuqY6g4DWjvpmjM
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz6MwUTOHRgC0oIxVtaHGQBd
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz4KD007Ge10dfrDVc4YwlYS
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzdiPTrEWyz4IknbwXMEVwxOWS3z1Ch3C
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