Transcript Before Classic Greek Civilization: Babylon and Egypt

Region dominated by the
Babylonian civilization.
Example of a cuneiform tablet between 1900
and 1600 BC containing Pythagorean triples.
Babylonians and Chaldeans observed the motion of the stars and planets from the earliest
antiquity (since the middle of the 23rd century B.C.). They cataloged the motion of the stars and
planets as well as the occurrence of eclipses and attempted to fit their behavior to some numerical
theories. Many of these observations were used for astrological prophesying and, in fact, they
were the originators of astrology. They believed that the motions and changes in the stars and
planets determine (or so they believed) what occurs on this planet.
The Babylonians excelled in computational mathematics (base 60), they were able to solve
algebraic equations of the first degree, understood the concept of function and realized the truth
of Pythagoras' theorem (without furnishing an abstract proof). One of the clay tablets dated from
between 1900 and 1600 B.C. contains answers to a problem containing Pythagorean triples, i.e.
numbers a , b, c with a2 + b2 = c2. It is said to be the oldest number theory document in existence.
The Babylonians had an advanced number system with base 60 rather than the
base 10 of common today. The Babylonians divided the day into 24 hours, each hour into 60
minutes, each minute into 60 seconds. This form of counting has survived for 40 centuries.
Egyptians
The study of the heavens was not made for
altruistic purposes but with very practical aims: a
good calendar was necessary in order to prepare for
the regular flooding of the Nile as well as for
religious purposes. The Egyptian calendar had a
year of precisely 365 days and was used for many
centuries.
Egyptians knew and used the water clock whose
origin is lost in the mists of time.
Most of Egyptian mathematics was aimed at
practical calculations such as measuring the Earth
(important as the periodic Nile floods
erased property boundary marks) and business
mathematics.
Unlike the Greeks who thought abstractly about
mathematical ideas, the Egyptians were only
concerned with practical arithmetic. In fact the
Egyptians probably did not think of numbers as
abstract quantities but always thought of a
specific collection of objects when a number was
mentioned.
An example of Egyptian papyri,
the Moscow papyrus and its
translation; the text contains the
estimate =256/81=3.1605
To quantify science and technology, it is
important to have convenient ways to carry
out the necessary arithmetical procedures.
The Egyptians were only concerned with
practical arithmetic. Their numbers were
unsuitable for multiplication. The Rhind
papyrus shows how the Egyptians carried out
multiplication despite the difficulties in their
numerical notation.
The Rhind papyrus:
The Scottish Egyptologist, Henry Rhind,
purchased the Rhind papyrus in Luxor in
1858. The papyrus scroll is approximately
about 1/3 of a meter wide and 6 meters long. It
was written around 1650 BC by the scribe
Ahmes who is copying a document which is
200 years older. So the original papyrus dates
from about 1850BC.
Pottery & Glass
Metal working
Metal mining & extraction
The two temples at Abu
Simbel, of Ramesses II, are
primarily dedicated to ReHarakhte, and that of his wife,
Nefertari dedicated to Hathor,
One of the oldest in history the ancient Egyptian civilization, emerges from prehistory into the period of more or less precise chronological record up to a date perhaps
not far removed from 3400 B.C. This highly developed but in many respects static
civilization lasted for over 3000 years, during which it spread its influence far and
wide. Some archaeologists, indeed, claim to see in all other civilizations signs of an
Egyptian origin. It is universally agreed, however, that in technical arts Egyptian
workers pointed the way to the rest of the world, and it is to them that all must turn
for the first discovery of those facts that made science possible.
To build these structures took a tremendous technical expertise,
most of which is not known today. Probably the building
engineering of the Greeks took much of this knowledge over.
The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu).
Herodotus said that it would have taken 30
years and 100,000 slaves to have built it.
This pyramid is thought to have been built
between 2589 - 2566 BC. It would have
taken over 2,300,000 blocks of stone with
an average weight of 2.5 tons each. The
total weight would have been 6,000,000
tons and a height of 482 feet (140m).
The Great Sphinx is to the
northeast of Chephren's
Valley Temple. Where it
sits was once a quarry.
Chephren's workers
shaped the stone into the
lion and gave it their
king's face over 4,500
years ago. The sphinx
faces the rising sun.
The Palace of
Amenhotep III. This
was the home of
Amenhotep III, his
wife Tiy and his harem
of 317 Hittites that he
received as a dowry
when he married a
Hittite princess.