http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-29/ancient-babylonian-text-earliest-use-of-calculus-for-astronomy/7121548

Amazing!

“Key points:

• Five ancient Babylonian clay cuneiform tablets calculate Jupiter’s motion across the sky

• The tablets are thought to have been written in Babylon between 350 and 50 BCE

• The discovery redefines our history books as it was thought calculus was first used in the Middle Ages”

Michael V said:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-29/ancient-babylonian-text-earliest-use-of-calculus-for-astronomy/7121548

Amazing!

“Key points:

• Five ancient Babylonian clay cuneiform tablets calculate Jupiter’s motion across the sky

• The tablets are thought to have been written in Babylon between 350 and 50 BCE

• The discovery redefines our history books as it was thought calculus was first used in the Middle Ages”
  

> The tablets are part of a larger collection of 450 astronomy tablets from Babylon and Uruk containing celestial data arranged in rows and columns, together with instructions.

How come I don’t know of these? I own two books containing translations of ancient documents.“The ancient near east …”

Is this calculus without algebra?

> “If you plot the velocity of Jupiter against time, you get a creeping curve which looks like a rectangle with a slanted top — that’s the trapezoid.”

Um, no. You get a line.

Awesome find

and so many history books will now have to be rewritten