Babylonian numbers

Babylonian numbers

Babylonian numbers - numbers used by the Babylonians in their six-decimal number system . Babylonian numbers were written in cuneiform - on clay tablets , while the clay was still soft, signs were squeezed out with a wooden stick for writing or with a pointed reed.

The Babylonians, famous for their astronomical observations and calculations (with the help of their invention of the abacus ), inherited from the Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations a six-decimal number system. It was used two thousand years BC. e. To record the numbers, only two signs were used: a direct wedge to indicate units and a lying wedge to indicate dozens within the six decimal place. A new six-decimal place began with the appearance of a direct wedge after a lying wedge, if we consider the number from right to left. Thus, the number was represented in the positional 60-decimal system, and its 60-decimal digits - in the additive decimal. Similarly recorded fractions. For popular fractions 1/2, 1/3 and 2/3 there were special badges.

There was no zero at first. Later, a designation was introduced for the missing six-digit digits, which corresponds to the appearance of zero, but this sign was not placed on the right in the first digit, which led to ambiguity in the recording of numbers and additional information was required to determine the absolute value of the number. ^[one]