NMC102H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Metonic Cycle, Sexagesimal, Babylonian Astronomy
31 May 2015
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Document Summary
Most of the surviving babylonian mathematical tablets are not so well represented along school texts of later periods. Use of wedges instead of circular signs around late 3rd millennium bc. Sexagesimal place value system from late third millennium, for calculations only. Sometimes the mathematical problems don"t have plausible scenarios, but that didn"t matter as long as they had the techniques. Scribes needed to estimate amount of labour and materials needed for construction projects i. e. : brick making, carrying building materials, digging canals, building walls, rates of pay. Walls made up a third of the babylonian house plans. Don"t have many documents about the house construction projects, only documents for large-scale projects (admin documents) Scribes would need to be trained in surveying techniques. Insert a month in every 7th year, in a 19-year cycle. In assyria, astronomists only chartered movements of the moon, and made up events that would happen based on their observations (i. e. : horoscope)
