Abstract
In Science Awakening I, B. L. van der Waerden quotes the beginning of ‘AO8862’, a Babylonian clay tablet going back to about the same time as the Rhind Papyrus:
Length, width. I have multiplied the length and the width, thus obtaining the area. Then I added to the area, the excess of the length over the width: 183 was the result. Moreover, I have added the length and the width: 27. Required length, width and area.
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Anglin, W.S., Lambek, J. (1995). More about Mesopotamian Mathematics. In: The Heritage of Thales. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0803-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0803-7_6
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