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The Development of Mathematics:

Ancient Period
Overview

The history of mathematics is closely as old as humanity itself. Mathematics has been
significant to advances in science, engineering, and philosophy. It has a history which is rich in
impressive discoveries, false starts, and confusions. It has advanced from simple counting,
measurement and calculation, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical
objects, through the application of abstraction, imagination and logic, to the broad, complex and
often abstract discipline we know today.

In this module, you will learn how mathematics revolves in every period that gives a
narrative which adds colour to the discipline. You will learn how mathematics is used in the
Egyptian and Babylonian time. Likewise, you will explore mathematics in the Ancient Greece. In
addition, you will also learn about Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic, Indian, Hindu, and Chinese
Mathematics.

Intended Learning Outcomes

After learning this module, you should be able to:

✔ discuss the development of mathematics in the ancient period
✔ show the evolution of numeration systems in ancient times
✔ recognize the symbols and notations used
✔ perform the mathematical operations used in this period.
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Lesson 1.1 Prehistoric Mathematics

● The origin of mathematical thought lie in the concepts of number, magnitude, and form
the idea of the "number" concept evolving gradually over time is supported by the
existence of languages which preserve the distinction between "one", "two", and "many",
but not of numbers larger than two. Early man kept track of regular occurrences such as
the phases of the moon and the seasons.
● Some of the very earliest evidence of mankind
thinking about numbers is from notched bones
in Africa dating back to 35,000 to 20,000 years
ago. But this is really mere counting and
tallying rather than mathematics as such.
● The oldest known possibly mathematical
object is the Lebombo bone, discovered in
the Lebombo mountain of Swaziland and
dated to approximately 35,000 BC.
● The Ishango bone, found near the
headwaters of the Nile river (Northeastern
Congo, may be as much as 20,000 years old
and consists of a series of tally marks carved
in three columns running the length of the
bone.
 Assessment Task 1.1

1. Can we say that ancient people have already incorporated mathematics in their daily
lives? Why do you say so?
2. Surf the Internet on the significance of the Lebombo bone. Find out the meaning of the
markings found in the rows a, b, and c of the Ishango bone.
3. Can we still see the application of the tallying method of counting in today’s society?
How?

Lesson 1.2 Sumerian and Babylonian Mathematics

● The Sumerians developed the earliest known

writing system – a pictographic writing system
known as cuneiform script, using
wedge-shaped characters inscribed on baked
clay tablets.
● Sumerian mathematics initially developed largely
as a response to bureaucratic needs when their
civilization settled and developed agriculture
(possibly as early as the 6th millennium BCE) for
the measurement of plots of land, the taxation of
individuals, etc. In addition, the Sumerians and
Babylonians needed to describe quite large
numbers as they attempted to chart the course of
the night sky and develop their sophisticated lunar calendar.
● They were perhaps the first people to assign symbols to groups of objects in an attempt
to make the description of larger numbers easier. They moved from using separate
tokens or symbols to represent sheaves of wheat, jars of oil, etc., to the more abstract
use of a symbol for specific numbers of anything.
● Starting as early as the 4th millennium BCE, they began using a small clay cone to
represent one, a clay ball for ten, and a large cone for sixty. Over the course of the third
millennium, these objects were replaced by cuneiform equivalents so that numbers could
be written with the same stylus that was being used for the words in the text. A
rudimentary model of the abacus was probably in use in Sumerian from as early as 2700
– 2300 BCE.

● Sumerian and Babylonian mathematics was based on a sexegesimal, or base 60

numeric system, which could be counted physically using the twelve knuckles on one
hand the five fingers on the other hand.

● Babylonian numbers used a true place-value system, where digits written in the left
column represented larger values, much as in the modern decimal system, although of
course using base 60 not base 10. Thus, in the Babylonian system represented
3,600 plus 60 plus 1, or 3,661. Also, to represent the numbers 1 – 59 within each place
value, two distinct symbols were used, a unit symbol ( ) and a ten symbol ( ) which
were combined in a similar way to the familiar system of Roman numerals (e.g. 23 would

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 be shown as ). Thus, represents 60 plus 23, or 83. However, the
number 60 was represented by the same symbol as the number 1 and, because they
lacked an equivalent of the decimal point, the actual place value of a symbol often had to
be inferred from the context.

● It has been conjectured

that Babylonian
advances in
mathematics were probably facilitated by the fact that 60 has many divisors and the
continued modern-day usage of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360
degrees in a circle, are all testaments to the ancient Babylonian system. It is for similar
reasons that 12 has been such a popular multiple historically (e.g. 12 months, 12 inches,
12 pence, 2 x 12 hours, etc.).
● The Babylonians also developed another revolutionary mathematical concept, a circle
character for zero, although its symbol was really still more of a placeholder than a
number in its own right.
● The development of a complex system of
metrology in Sumer from about 3000 BCE,
and multiplication and reciprocal (division)
tables, tables of squares, square roots and
cube roots, geometrical exercises and
division problems from around 2600 BCE
onwards was evident. Later Babylonian
tablets dating from about 1800 to 1600
BCE cover topics as varied as fractions,
algebra, methods for solving linear,
quadratic and even some cubic equations,
and the calculation of regular reciprocal
pairs (pairs of number which multiply
together to give 60). One Babylonian tablet gives an approximation to √2 accurate to an
astonishing five decimal places. Others list the squares of numbers up to 59, the cubes of
numbers up to 32 as well as tables of compound interest. Yet another gives an estimate
for π of 3 1⁄8 (3.125).
● The idea of square and quadratic numbers naturally arose in the context of the
measurement of land, and Babylonian mathematical tablets give the first ever evidence of
the solution of quadratic equations. The Babylonian approach to solving them usually
revolved around a kind of geometric game of slicing up and rearranging shapes, although
the use of algebra and quadratic equations also appears.
● The famous and controversial Plimpton 322 clay tablet, believed to date from around
1800 BCE, suggests that the Babylonians may well have known the secret of right-angled

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 triangles (that the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square of the other
two sides) many centuries before the Greek Pythagoras. The tablet appears to list 15
perfect Pythagorean triangles with whole number sides, although some claim that they
were merely academic exercises, and not deliberate manifestations of Pythagorean
triples.

Assessment Task 1.2

1. Express each of the given numbers in Babylonian cuneiform notation.

(a) 84 (b) 123 (c) 1,000 (d) 12,145

2. Translate each of these into a number in our system.

3. How is the sexagesimal system manifested in the Babylonian mathematics

evident today?

4. A Pythagorean triple is a set of three numbers which satisfy the formula of the
Pythagoren theorem c2= a2+ b2. Example of a Pythagorean triple is 3, 4, and 5
since 52= 32+ 42. Identify two more sets of Pythagorean triples.

Lesson 1.3 Egyptian Mathematics

● The early Egyptians settled along the fertile Nile valley as early as about 6000 BCE, and
they began to record the patterns of lunar phases and the seasons, both for agricultural
and religious reasons.

● The Pharaoh’s surveyors used measurements based on body parts (a palm was the
width of the hand, a cubit the measurement from elbow to fingertips) to measure land and
buildings very early in Egyptian history, and a decimal numeric system was developed
based on our ten fingers.

● The oldest mathematical text from ancient Egypt discovered so far, though, is the
Moscow Papyrus, which dates from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom around 2000 – 1800
BCE.

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● It is thought that the Egyptians introduced the earliest fully-developed base 10
numeration system at least as early as 2700 BCE.

● Written numbers used a stroke for units, a heel-bone symbol for tens, a coil of rope for
hundreds and a lotus plant for thousands, as well as other hieroglyphic symbols for
higher powers of ten up to a million. However, there was no concept of place value, so
larger numbers were rather unwieldy.

● The Rhind
Papyrus, dating
from around 1650 BCE, is a kind of instruction manual in arithmetic and geometry, and it
gives us explicit demonstrations of how multiplication and division was carried out at that
time. It also contains evidence of other mathematical knowledge, including unit fractions,
composite and prime numbers, arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means, and how to
solve first order linear equations as well as arithmetic and geometric series.

● The Berlin Papyrus, which dates from around 1300 BCE, shows that ancient Egyptians
could solve second-order algebraic (quadratic) equations.
● Egyptian Multiplication was achieved by a
process of repeated doubling of the number
to be multiplied on one side and of one on
the other, essentially a kind of multiplication
of binary factors similar to that used by
modern computers. These corresponding
blocks of counters could then be used as a
kind of multiplication reference table: first,
the combination of powers of two which add
up to the number to be multiplied by was
isolated, and then the corresponding blocks
of counters on the other side yielded the
answer. This effectively made use of the
concept of binary numbers, over 3,000
years before Leibniz introduced it into the
west, and many more years before the
development of the computer was to fully
explore its potential.
● The papyri which have come down to us
demonstrate the use of unit fractions based on
the symbol of the Eye of Horus, where each
part of the eye represented a different fraction,
each half of the previous one (i.e. half, quarter,
eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second, sixty-fourth), so
that the total was one-sixty-fourth short of a

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 whole, the first known example of a geometric series.
● The Egyptians approximated the area of a circle by using shapes whose area they did
know. They observed that the area of a circle of diameter 9 units, for example, was very
close to the area of a square with sides of 8 units, so that the area of circles of other
diameters could be obtained by multiplying the diameter by 8⁄9 and then squaring it. This
gives an effective approximation of π accurate to within less than one percent.

● Unit fractions could also be used for simple

division sums. Consider the example given
at the right.

● The pyramids themselves are another

indication of the sophistication of Egyptian
mathematics. Setting aside claims that the
pyramids are first known structures to
observe the golden ratio of 1 : 1.618, there
is certainly evidence that they knew the
formula for the volume of a pyramid
– 1⁄3 times the height times the length times
the width – as well as of a truncated or
clipped pyramid.

● They were also aware, long

before Pythagoras, of the rule that a triangle
with sides 3, 4 and 5 units yields a perfect
right angle, and Egyptian builders used
ropes knotted at intervals of 3, 4 and 5 units
in order to ensure exact right angles for their
stonework (in fact, the 3-4-5 right triangle is
often called “Egyptian” ).

Assessment Task 1.3

1. Express each of the given numbers in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

(a) 1,492 (b) 70,807 (c) 19 991 (d) 2020

2. Write each of these Egyptian numbers in our system.

3. Perform the indicated operations and express the answers in hieroglyphics.

a.
b.

4. Using the ancient Egyptian method of multiplication, multiply 5 by 7.

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 5. Using the ancient Egyptian method of division, divide 4 by 6.

Lesson 1.4 Greek Mathematics

● The ancient Greek numeral

system, known as Attic or
Herodianic numerals, was
fully developed by about 450
BCE, and in regular use
possibly as early as the 7th
Century BCE. It was a base
10 system similar to the
earlier Egyptian one (and
even more similar to the
later Roman system), with
symbols for 1, 5, 10, 50, 100,
500 and 1,000 repeated as
many times needed to
represent the desired
number. Addition was done by totalling separately the symbols (1s, 10s, 100s, etc.) in the
numbers to be added, and multiplication was a laborious process based on successive
doublings (division was based on the inverse of this process).

Examples:
a. 2001 = 2000 + 1
= ΧΧ + I
= ΧΧΙ

b. 4612 = 4000 + 600 + 10 + 2

= ΧΧΧΧ + HHHHHH + Δ + II
= ΧΧΧΧ HHHHHH Δ II

c.
= 10, 000 + 5,000 + 1,000 + 50 + 20 + 3
= 16,073

● Most of Greek mathematics was based on geometry. Thales, one of the Seven Sages of
Ancient Greece, who lived on the Ionian coast of Asian Minor in the first half of the 6th
Century BCE, is usually considered to have been the first to lay down guidelines for the
abstract development of geometry, aside from his works on similar and right triangles.
● Thales established what has become known as Thales’
Theorem, whereby if a triangle is drawn within a circle
with the long side as a diameter of the circle, then the
opposite angle will always be a right angle. He is also
credited with another theorem, also known as Thales’

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 Theorem or the Intercept Theorem, about the ratios of the line segments that are
created if two intersecting lines are intercepted by a pair of parallels (and, by extension,
the ratios of the sides of similar triangles).
● The legend of the 6th Century BCE mathematician Pythagoras of Samos has become
synonymous with the birth of Greek mathematics. Indeed, he is believed to have coined
both the words “philosophy” (“love of wisdom“) and “mathematics” (“that which is
learned“). Pythagoras was perhaps the first to realize that a complete system of
mathematics could be constructed, where geometric elements corresponded with
numbers. Pythagorean Theorem is one of the best known of all mathematical theorems.
● Three geometrical problems in particular, often referred to as the Three Classical
Problems, and all to be solved by
purely geometric means using only
a straight edge and a compass,
date back to the early days of
Greek geometry: “the squaring (or
quadrature) of the circle”, “the
doubling (or duplicating) of the
cube” and “the trisection of an
angle”. These intransigent
problems were profoundly
influential on future geometry and
led to many fruitful discoveries,
although their actual solutions (or,
as it turned out, the proofs of their
impossibility) had to wait until
the 19th Century.
● Hippocrates of Chios was one such Greek mathematician who applied himself to these
problems during the 5th Century BCE (his contribution to the “squaring the circle”
problem is known as the Lune of Hippocrates). His influential book “The Elements”,
dating to around 440 BCE, was the first compilation of the elements of geometry, and his
work was an important source for Euclid‘s later work.
● It was the Greeks who first
grappled with the idea of
infinity, such as described in
the well-known paradoxes
attributed to the
philosopher Zeno of Elea in
the 5th Century BCE. The
most famous of his paradoxes
is that of Achilles and the
Tortoise, which describes a
theoretical race between
Achilles and a tortoise.
Achilles gives the much
slower tortoise a head start,
but by the time Achilles
reaches the tortoise’s starting
point, the tortoise has already

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 moved ahead. By the time Achilles reaches that point, the tortoise has moved on again,
etc., so that in principle the swift Achilles can never catch up with the slow tortoise.
● Zeno’s so-called Dichotomy Paradox is based on the infinite divisibility of space and
time, and rest on the idea that a half plus a quarter plus an eighth plus a sixteenth, etc.,
to infinity will never quite equal a whole. The paradox stems, however, from the false
assumption that it is impossible to complete an infinite number of discrete dashes in a
finite time, although it is extremely difficult to definitively prove the fallacy. The ancient
Greek Aristotle was the first of many to try to disprove the paradoxes, particularly as he
was a firm believer that infinity could only ever be potential and not real.
● Democritus, most famous for his prescient ideas about all matter being composed of tiny
atoms, was also a pioneer of mathematics and geometry in the 5th – 4th Century BCE.
He produced works with titles like “On Numbers“, “On Geometrics“, “On Tangencies“,
“On Mapping” and “On Irrationals“, although these works have not survived. He was
among the first to observe that a cone (or pyramid) has 1/3 the volume of a cylinder (or
prism) with the same base and height, and he is the first to have seriously considered the
division of objects into an infinite number of cross-sections.
● Pythagoras greatly influenced those who
came after him, including Plato, who
established his famous Academy in Athens
in 387 BCE, and his protégé Aristotle,
whose work on logic was regarded as
definitive for over two thousand years. Plato
is best known for his description of the five
Platonic solids, but the value of his work as
a teacher and popularizer of mathematics
cannot be overstated.
● Plato’s student Eudoxus of Cnidus is
usually credited with the first implementation
of the “method of exhaustion” (later
developed by Archimedes), an early method
of integration by successive approximations which he used for the calculation of the
volume of the pyramid and cone. He also developed a general theory of proportion,
which was applicable to incommensurable (irrational) magnitudes that cannot be
expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers, as well as to commensurable (rational)
magnitudes, thus extending Pythagoras’ incomplete ideas.
● Perhaps the most important single contribution of the Greeks, though –
and Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle were all influential in this respect – was the idea of
proof, and the deductive method of using logical steps to prove or disprove theorems
from initial assumed axioms. Egyptians and the Babylonians had relied on inductive
reasoning that is using repeated observations to establish rules of thumb. It is this
concept of proof that give mathematics its power and ensures that proven theories are as
true today as they were two thousand years ago, and which laid the foundations for the
systematic approach to mathematics of Euclid and those who came after him.

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 Assessment Task 1.4

1. Write the following numbers using the symbols of the Attic Greeks.
(a) 654 (b) 132 (c) 1984 (d) 162,427

2. Translate each of the following Attic numbers into our own number system.

3. What are the characteristics of the Platonic solids?

4. Surf the Internet for an example of a proof using deductive method of logic.

Lesson 1.5 Hellenistic Mathematics

● By the 3rd Century BCE, in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great,
mathematical breakthroughs were also beginning to be made on the edges of the Greek
Hellenistic empire.
● In particular, Alexandria in Egypt became a great center of learning under the beneficent
rule of the Ptolemies, and its famous Library soon gained a reputation to rival that of the
Athenian Academy. The patrons of the Library were arguably the first professional
scientists, paid for their devotion to research. Among the best known and most influential
mathematicians who studied and taught at Alexandria were Euclid, Archimedes,
Eratosthenes, Heron, Menelaus and Diophantus.
● During the late 4th and early 3rd Century BCE, Euclid was the great chronicler of the
mathematics of the time, and one of the most influential teachers in history. He virtually
invented classical (Euclidean) geometry as
we know it. Archimedes spent most of his life
in Syracuse, Sicily, but also studied for a while
in Alexandria. He is perhaps best known as an
engineer and inventor but, in the light of recent
discoveries, he is now considered of one of the
greatest pure mathematicians of all time.
Eratosthenes of Alexandria was a near
contemporary of Archimedes in the 3rd Century
BCE. A mathematician, astronomer and
geographer, he devised the first system of
latitude and longitude, and calculated the
circumference of the earth to a remarkable
degree of accuracy. As a mathematician, his
greatest legacy is the “Sieve of Eratosthenes”
algorithm for identifying prime numbers.
● Prime numbers are numbers greater than one
that are only divisible by themselves and one.
They are the 'building blocks' of mathematics in a similar way to how atoms are the
building blocks of chemistry. The first ten prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23,
and 29.

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● It is not known exactly when the great Library of Alexandria burned down, but Alexandria
remained an important intellectual center for some centuries. In the 1st century BCE,
Heron (or Hero) was another great Alexandrian inventor, best known in mathematical
circles for Heronian triangles (triangles with integer sides and integer area), Heron’s
Formula for finding the area of a triangle from its side lengths, and Heron’s Method for
iteratively computing a square root. He was also the first mathematician to confront at
least the idea of √-1 (although he had no idea how to treat it, something which had to wait
for Tartaglia and Cardano in the 16th Century).
● Menelaus of Alexandria, who lived in the 1st – 2nd
Century CE, was the first to recognize geodesics on a
curved surface as the natural analogues of straight lines
on a flat plane. His book “Sphaerica” dealt with the
geometry of the sphere and its application in astronomical
measurements and calculations, and introduced the
concept of spherical triangle (a figure formed of three
great circle arcs, which he named “trilaterals“).
● In the 3rd Century CE, Diophantus of Alexandria was
the first to recognize fractions as numbers, and is
considered an early innovator in the field of what would
later become known as algebra. He applied himself to some quite complex algebraic
problems, including what is now known as Diophantine Analysis, which deals with
finding integer solutions to kinds of problems that lead to equations in several unknowns
(Diophantine equations). Diophantus’ “Arithmetica”, a collection of problems giving
numerical solutions of both determinate and indeterminate equations, was the most
prominent work on algebra in all Greek mathematics, and his problems exercised the
minds of many of the world’s best mathematicians for much of the next two millennia.
● But Alexandria was not the only centre of learning
in the Hellenistic Greek empire. Mention should
also be made of Apollonius of Perga whose
late 3rd Century BCE work on geometry (conics
and conic sections) was very influential on later
European mathematicians. It was Apollonius
who gave the ellipse, the parabola, and the
hyperbola the names by which we know them,
and showed how they could be derived from
different sections through a cone.
● Hipparchus, who was also from Hellenistic
Anatolia and who live in the 2nd Century BCE,
was perhaps the greatest of all ancient
astronomers. He revived the use of arithmetic techniques first developed by
the Chaldeans and Babylonians, and is usually credited with the beginnings of
trigonometry. He calculated the distance of the moon from the earth by measuring the
different parts of the moon visible at different locations and calculating the distance using
the properties of triangles. He went on to create the first table of chords (side lengths
corresponding to different angles of a triangle). By the time of the great Alexandrian
astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd Century CE, however, Greek mastery of numerical
procedures had progressed to the point where Ptolemy was able to include in his
“Almagest” a table of trigonometric chords in a circle for steps of ¼° which (although
expressed sexagesimally in the Babylonian style) is accurate to about five decimal
places.
● The final blow to the Hellenistic mathematical heritage at Alexandria might be seen in the
figure of Hypatia, the first recorded female mathematician, and a renowned teacher who
had written some respected commentaries on Diophantus and Apollonius. She was
dragged to her death by a Christian mob in 415 CE.

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 Assessment Task 1.5

1. Discuss the process of finding prime numbers using the Sieve of Eratosthenes.
How many prime numbers are between 1 and 100? What are those?

2. Surf the Internet for Heron’s formula in getting the area of a triangle.

3. Archimedes is generally regarded as the greatest mathematician of antiquity.

Explain the justification for such a view, comparing his work with that of other
potential earlier rivals.

4. What was the contribution of Hypatia in the field of mathematics?

Lesson 1.6 Roman Mathematics

● By the middle of the 1st Century BCE, the Roman had

tightened their grip on the
old Greek and Hellenistic empires, and the mathematical
revolution of the Greeks ground to halt. Despite all their
advances in other respects, no mathematical innovations
occurred under the Roman Empire and Republic, and
there were no mathematicians of note. The Romans had
no use for pure mathematics, only for its practical
applications, and the Christian regime that followed it
(after Christianity became the official religion of the
Roman empire) even less so.
● Roman numerals are well known today, and were the
dominant number system for trade and administration in
most of Europe for the best part of a millennium. It was decimal (base 10) system but not
directly positional, and did not include a zero, so that, for arithmetic and mathematical
purposes, it was a clumsy and inefficient system. It was based on letters of the Roman
alphabet – I, V, X, L, C, D and M – combines to signify the sum of their values (e.g. VII =
V + I + I = 7).
● Later, a subtractive notation was also adopted, where VIIII, for example, was replaced by
IX (10 – 1 = 9), which simplified the writing of numbers a little, but made calculation even
more difficult, requiring conversion of the subtractive notation at the beginning of a sum
and then its re-application at the end. Due to the difficulty of written arithmetic using
Roman numeral notation, calculations were usually performed with an abacus, based on
earlier Babylonian and Greek abaci.

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● In place of new symbols for large numbers, a multiplicative device was introduced; a bar
drawn over the entire symbol multiplied the corresponding number by 1000, whereas a
double bar meant multiplication by 100,000. Thus,

● It is possible to do arithmetic with Roman Numerals. To do this, rewrite these subtractive

symbols using additive symbols (even if you have to violate the rule about having no
more than 3 of the same symbol in a row). Which means we need to rewrite “IV” as “IIII”
and “IX” as “VIIII.” Take the given examples below.

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 Assessment Task 1.6

1. Write the Roman numerals corresponding to the given number.

(a) 1492 (b) 1066 (c) 74,802 (d) 123,456 (e) 3,040,279

2. Convert each of these from Roman numerals into our system.

(a) CXXIV (b) MDLXI (c) MDCCXLVIII (d) DCCLXXXVII

(e) XIX

3. Perform the indicated operations and express the answers in Roman numerals.

(a) add MMCLXI and MDCXX (b) add XXIV and XLVI
(c) subtract XXIII from XXX (d) subtract CLXI from CCLII
(e) multiply XXXIV by XVI

Lesson 1.7 Mayan Mathematics

● The Mayan civilization had settled in the region of Central America from about 2000 BCE,
although the so-called Classic Period stretches from about 250 CE to 900 CE. At its
peak, it was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the
world.
● The importance of astronomy and calendar calculations in Mayan society required
mathematics, and the Maya constructed quite early a very sophisticated number system,
possibly more advanced than any other in the world at the time.
● The Mayan and other Mesoamerican cultures
used a vigesimal number system based
on base 20, (and, to some extent, base 5),
probably originally developed from counting on
fingers and toes. The numerals consisted of
only three symbols: zero, represented as a
shell shape; one, a dot; and five, a bar. Thus,
addition and subtraction was a relatively simple
matter of adding up dots and bars. After the
number 19, larger numbers were written in a
kind of vertical place value format using
powers of 20: 1, 20, 400, 8000, 160000, etc.,
although in their calendar calculations they
gave the third position a value of 360 instead of 400 (higher positions revert to multiples
of 20).
● The pre-classic Maya and their neighbors had independently developed the concept of
zero (Mayan zero) by at least as early as 36 BCE, and works with sums up to the
hundreds of millions, and with dates so large it took several lines just to represent them.
Despite not possessing the concept of a fraction, they produced extremely accurate
astronomical observations using no instruments other than sticks and were able to
measure the length of the solar year to a far higher degree of accuracy than that used in
Europe (their calculations produced 365.242 days, compared to the modern value of
365.242198), as well as the length of the lunar month (their estimate was 29.5308 days,
compared to the modern value of 29.53059).

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 ● However, due to the geographical disconnect, Mayan and Mesoamerican mathematics
had absolutely no influence on Old World (European and Asia) numbering systems and
mathematics.

Assessment Task 1.7

1. Convert the following Mayan number to base 10. Show your solution.

(a) (b) (c)

2. Write the Mayan symbol for the following base-10 numbers.

(a) 143 (b) 7 113 (d) 21 286

3. Perform the indicated operation shown here.

Lesson 1.8 Chinese Mathematics

● The simple but efficient ancient Chinese numbering system, which dates back to at least
the 2nd millennium BCE, used small bamboo rods arranged to represent the numbers 1
to 9, which were then places in columns representing units, tens, hundreds, thousands,
etc. It was, therefore, a decimal place value system, very similar to the one we use today
– indeed it was the first such number system, adopted by the Chinese over a thousand
years before it was adopted in the West – and it made even quite complex calculations
very quick and easy.

● Written numbers, however, employed the slightly less efficient system of using a different
symbol for tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. This was largely because there was no
concept or symbol of zero, and it had the effect of limiting the usefulness of the written
number in Chinese.
● The use of the abacus is often thought of as a Chinese idea, although some type of
abacus was in use in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, probably much earlier than in
China (the first Chinese abacus, or “suanpan”, we know of dates to about the 2nd
Century BCE).

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● There was a pervasive fascination with numbers and mathematical patterns in ancient
China, and different numbers were believed to have cosmic significance. In
particular, magic squares – squares of numbers where each row, column and diagonal
added up to the same total – were regarded as having great spiritual and religious
significance.
● The Lo Shu Square, an order three square
where each row, column and diagonal adds up to
15, is perhaps the earliest of these, dating back
to around 650 BCE (the legend of Emperor Yu’s
discovery of the square on the back of a turtle is
set as taking place in about 2800 BCE). But
soon, bigger magic squares were being
constructed, with even greater magical and
mathematical powers, culminating in the
elaborate magic squares, circles and triangles of
Yang Hui in the 13th Century (Yang Hui also
produced a triangular representation of binomial
coefficients identical to the later Pascals’ Triangle, and was the first to use decimal
fractions in the modern form).
● But the main thrust of Chinese mathematics developed in response to the empire’s
growing need for mathematically competent administrators. A textbook called “Jiuzhang
Suanshu” or “Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art” (written over a period of time
from about 200 BCE onwards) became an important tool in the education of such a civil
service, covering hundreds of problems in practical areas such as trade, taxation,
engineering and the payment of wages.
● It was particularly important as a
guide to how to solve equations –
the deduction of an unknown
number from other known
information – using a
sophisticated matrix-based
method which did not appear in
the West until Carl Friedrich
Gauss re-discovered it at the
beginning of the 19th Century
(and which is now known as
Gaussian elimination).
● Among the greatest
mathematicians of ancient China
was Liu Hui, who produced a
detailed commentary on the “Nine
Chapters” in 263 CE, was one of
the first mathematicians known to
leave roots unevaluated, giving
more exact results instead of
approximations. By an
approximation using a regular
polygon with 192 sides, he also
formulated an algorithm which
calculated the value of π as
3.14159 (correct to five decimal
places), as well as developing a very early form of both integral and differential calculus.
● The Chinese went on to solve far more complex equations using far larger numbers than
those outlined in the “Nine Chapters”, though. They also started to pursue more abstract
mathematical problems including what has become known as the Chinese Remainder
Theorem. This uses the

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 remainders after dividing an unknown number by a succession of smaller numbers, such
as 3, 5 and 7, in order to calculate the smallest value of the unknown number. A
technique for solving such problems, initially posed by Sun Tzu in the 3rd Century CE
and considered one of the jewels of mathematics, was being used to measure planetary
movements by Chinese astronomers in the 6th Century AD, and even today it has
practical uses, such as in internet cryptography.
● By the 13th Century, the Golden Age of Chinese mathematics, there were over 30
prestigious mathematics schools scattered across China. Perhaps the most brilliant
Chinese mathematician of this time was Qin Jiushao, a rather violent and corrupt
imperial administrator and warrior, who explored solutions to quadratic and even cubic
equations using a method of repeated approximations very similar to that later devised in
the West by Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th Century. Qin even extended his technique to
solve (albeit approximately) equations involving numbers up to the power of ten,
extraordinarily complex mathematics for its time.

Assessment Task 1.8

1. Identify the number represented by the following Ancient Chinese numerals.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e)

2. Write the following numbers using Ancient Chinese Numerals.

(a) 567 (b) 2,020 (c) 17, 234 (d) 152, 879 (e) 102, 046

Lesson 1.9 Indian Mathematics

● Mantras from the early

Vedic period (before
1000 BCE) invoke
powers of ten from a
hundred all the way up
to a trillion, and provide
evidence of the use of
arithmetic operations
such as addition,
subtraction,
multiplication, fractions,
squares, cubes and
roots. A 4th Century CE
Sanskrit text reports
Buddha enumerating
numbers up to 1053, as

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 well as describing six more numbering systems over and above these, leading to a
number equivalent to 10421. Given that there are an estimated 1080 atoms in the whole
universe, this is as close to infinity as any in the ancient world came. It also describes a
series of iterations in decreasing size, in order to demonstrate the size of an atom, which
comes remarkably close to the actual size of a carbon atom (about 70 trillionths of a
metre).
● As early as the 8th Century BCE, long
before Pythagoras, a text known as the
“Sulba Sutras” (or “Sulva Sutras“)
listed several simple Pythagorean
triples, as well as a statement of the
simplified Pythagorean theorem for the
sides of a square and for a rectangle.
The Sutras also contain geometric
solutions of linear and quadratic
equations in a single unknown, and
give a remarkably accurate figure for
the square root of 2, obtained by
adding 1 + 1⁄3 + 1⁄(3 x 4) – 1⁄(3 x 4 x 34), which
yields a value of 1.4142156, correct to
5 decimal places.

● As early as the 3rd or 2nd Century

BCE, Jain mathematicians recognized
five different types of infinities: infinite
in one direction, in two directions, in area, infinite everywhere and perpetually
infinite. Ancient Buddhist literature also demonstrates a prescient awareness of
indeterminate and infinite numbers, with numbers deemed to be of three types:
countable, uncountable and infinite.

● The Indians early discovered the benefits of a decimal place value number system, and
were certainly using it before about the 3rd Century CE. They refined and perfected the
system, particularly the written representation of the numerals, creating the ancestors of
the nine numerals that we use across the world today, sometimes considered one of the
greatest intellectual innovations of all time.

● The Indians were also responsible for another hugely important development in
mathematics. The earliest recorded usage of a circle character for the number
zero is usually attributed to a 9th Century engraving in a temple in Gwalior in central
India. But the brilliant conceptual leap to include zero as a number in its own right (rather
than merely as a placeholder, a blank or empty space within a number, as it had been
treated until that time) is usually
credited to the 7th Century Indian
mathematicians Brahmagupta – or
possibly another Indian, Bhaskara I
– even though it may well have
been in practical use for centuries
before that. The use of zero as a
number which could be used in
calculations and mathematical
investigations, would revolutionize
mathematics.
● Brahmagupta established the basic mathematical rules for dealing with zero: 1 + 0 = 1; 1
– 0 = 1; and 1 x 0 = 0 (1 ÷ 0 would also fall to an Indian, the 12th Century mathematician
Bhaskara II). Brahmagupta also established rules for dealing with negative numbers,
and pointed out that quadratic equations could in theory have two possible solutions, one

18
 of which could be negative. He even attempted to write down these rather abstract
concepts, using the initials of the names of colors to represent unknowns in his
equations, one of the earliest intimations of what we now know as algebra.
● The so-called Golden Age of Indian mathematics can be said to extend from the 5th to
12th Centuries, and many of its mathematical discoveries predated similar discoveries in
the West by several centuries, which has led to some claims of plagiarism by later
European mathematicians, at least some of whom were probably aware of the earlier
Indian work.
● Golden Age Indian mathematicians made fundamental advances in the theory of
trigonometry, a method of linking geometry and numbers first developed by the Greeks.
They used ideas like the sine, cosine and tangent functions (which relate the angles of a
triangle to the relative lengths of its sides) to survey the land around them, navigate the
seas and even chart the heavens.
● Indian astronomers used trigonometry
to calculate the relative distances
between the Earth and the Moon and
the Earth and the Sun. They realized
that, when the Moon is half full and
directly opposite the Sun, then the
Sun, Moon and Earth form a right
angled triangle, and were able to
accurately measure the angle as 1⁄7°.
Their sine tables gave a ratio for the
sides of such a triangle as 400:1,
indicating that the Sun is 400 times
further away from the Earth than the Moon.
● Although the Greeks had been able to calculate the sine function of some angles, the
Indian astronomers wanted to be able to calculate the sine function of any given angle. A
text called the “Surya Siddhanta”, by unknown authors and dating from around 400 CE,
contains the roots of modern trigonometry, including the first real use of sines, cosines,
inverse sines, tangents and secants.
● As early as the 6th Century CE, the great Indian mathematician and astronomer
Aryabhata produced categorical definitions of sine, cosine, versine and inverse sine, and
specified complete sine and versine tables, in 3.75° intervals from 0° to 90°, to an
accuracy of 4 decimal places. Aryabhata also demonstrated solutions to simultaneous
quadratic equations, and produced an approximation for the value of πequivalent to
3.1416, correct to four decimal places. He used this to estimate the circumference of the
Earth, arriving at a figure of 24,835 miles, only 70 miles off its true value. But, perhaps
even more astonishing, he seems to have been aware that π is an irrational number, and
that any calculation can only ever be an approximation, something not proved in Europe
until 1761.
● Bhaskara II, who lived in the 12th Century, was one of the most accomplished of all
India’s great mathematicians. He is credited with explaining the previously misunderstood
operation of division by zero. He noticed that dividing one into two pieces yields a half, so
1 ÷ 1⁄2 = 2. Similarly, 1 ÷ 1⁄3 = 3. So, dividing 1 by smaller and smaller factions yields a
larger and larger number of pieces. Ultimately, therefore, dividing one into pieces of zero
size would yield infinitely many pieces, indicating that 1 ÷ 0 = ∞ (the symbol for infinity).
● However, Bhaskara II also made important contributions to many different areas of
mathematics from solutions of quadratic, cubic and quartic equations (including negative
and irrational solutions) to solutions of Diophantine equations of the second order to
preliminary concepts of infinitesimal calculus and mathematical analysis to spherical
trigonometry and other aspects of trigonometry. Some of his findings predate similar
discoveries in Europe by several centuries, and he made important contributions in terms
of the systemization of current knowledge and improved methods for known solutions.
● The Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics was founded in the late 14th Century
by Madhava of Sangamagrama, sometimes called the greatest

19
 mathematician-astronomer of medieval India. He developed infinite series
approximations for a range of trigonometric functions, including π, sine, etc. Some of his
contributions to geometry and algebra and his early forms of differentiation and
integration for simple functions may have been transmitted to Europe via Jesuit
missionaries, and it is possible that the later European development of calculus was
influenced by his work to some extent.

Assessment Task 1.9

1. Determine which statement is true about Indian mathematics.

A. They transformed zero into a place holder for decimals.

B. They founded “infinity”.
C. Pythagorean Theorem was a mathematical innovation from Ancient India.
D. They founded negative numbers.
E. The first decimal system was made in 200 AC.
F. Bhaskara II founded the number zero.
G. Indian mathematics come up with more numbers and facts by adding and
subtracting.
H. The value of pi was derived by adding all the fractions together.
I. Indians come up with the numbers 0-9.
J. Aryabhatta deduced the approximate value of pi, which he found it to be 3.14.

2. Which had the greater influence on modern thought, Chinese or Hindu mathematics?
Explain.

Lesson 1.10 Islamic Mathematics

● The Islamic Empire established across Persia, the Middle East, Central Asia, North
Africa, Iberia and parts of India from the 8th Century onwards made significant
contributions towards mathematics. They were able to draw on and fuse together the
mathematical developments of both Greece and India.

● One consequence of the Islamic prohibition on

depicting the human form was the extensive
use of complex geometric patterns to decorate
their buildings, raising mathematics to the form
of an art. In fact, over time, Muslim artists
discovered all the different forms of symmetry
that can be depicted on a 2-dimensional
surface.
● The Qu’ran itself encouraged the accumulation
of knowledge, and a Golden Age of Islamic
science and mathematics flourished throughout
the medieval period from the 9th to 15th
Centuries. The House of Wisdom was set up in
Baghdad around 810, and work started almost
immediately on translating the
major Greek and Indian mathematical and
astronomy works into Arabic.
● The outstanding Persian
mathematician Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi was

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 an early Director of the House of Wisdom in the 9th Century, and one of the greatest of
early Muslim mathematicians. Perhaps Al-Khwarizmi’s most important contribution to
mathematics was his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system (1 – 9 and 0),
which he recognized as having the power and efficiency needed to revolutionize Islamic
mathematics, and which was soon adopted by the entire Islamic world, and later by
Europe as well.
● Al-Khwarizmi‘s other important contribution was algebra, and he introduced the
fundamental algebraic methods of “reduction” and “balancing” and provided an
exhaustive account of solving polynomial equations up to the second degree. In this way,
he helped create the powerful abstract mathematical language still used across the world
today, and allowed a much more general way of analyzing problems other than just the
specific problems previously considered by the Indians and Chinese.
● The 10th Century Persian mathematician Muhammad Al-Karaji worked to extend
algebra still further, freeing it from its geometrical heritage, and introduced the theory of
algebraic calculus. Al-Karaji was the first to use the method of proof by mathematical
induction to prove his results, by proving that the first statement in an infinite sequence
of statements is true, and then proving that, if any one statement in the sequence is true,
then so is the next one.

● Among other things, Al-Karaji used

mathematical induction to prove the
binomial theorem. A binomial is a
simple type of algebraic expression
which has just two terms which are
operated on only by addition,
subtraction, multiplication and
positive whole-number exponents,
such as (x + y)2. The coefficients
needed when a binomial is
expanded form a symmetrical
triangle, usually referred to as
Pascal’s Triangle after the 17th
Century French
mathematician Blaise Pascal,
although many other
mathematicians had studied it
centuries before him in India,
Persia, China and Italy, including
Al-Karaji.

● Some hundred years after Al-Karaji, Omar Khayyam generalized Indian methods for
extracting square and cube roots to include fourth, fifth and higher roots in the early 12th
Century. He carried out a systematic analysis of cubic problems, revealing there were
actually several different sorts of cubic equations. Although he did in fact succeed in
solving cubic equations, and although he is usually credited with identifying the
foundations of algebraic geometry, he was held back from further advances by his
inability to separate the algebra from the geometry, and a purely algebraic method for the
solution of cubic equations had to wait another 500 years and the Italian mathematicians
del Ferro and Tartaglia.

● The 13th Century Persian astronomer, scientist and

mathematician Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi was perhaps the
first to treat trigonometry as a separate mathematical
discipline, distinct from astronomy. Building on earlier
work by Greek mathematicians such as Menelaus of
Alexandria and Indian work on the sine function, he

21
 gave the first extensive exposition of spherical trigonometry, including listing the six
distinct cases of a right triangle in spherical trigonometry. One of his major mathematical
contributions was the formulation of the famous law of sines for plane
triangles, a⁄(sin A) = b⁄(sin B) = c⁄(sin C), although the sine law for spherical triangles had been
discovered earlier by the 10th Century Persians Abul Wafa Buzjani and Abu Nasr
Mansur.

Other Muslim mathematicians worthy of note:

● Thabit ibn Qurra developed a general formula by which amicable numbers could be
derived, re-discovered much later by both Fermat and Descartes (amicable numbers are
pairs of numbers for which the sum of the divisors of one number equals the other
number, e.g. the proper divisors of 220 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and 110, of
which the sum is 284; and the proper divisors of 284 are 1, 2, 4, 71, and 142, of which
the sum is 220).
● Abul Hasan al-Uqlidisi wrote the earliest surviving text showing the positional use of
Arabic numerals, and particularly the use of decimals instead of fractions (e.g. 7.375
insead of 73⁄8).
● Ibrahim ibn Sinan continued Archimedes’ investigations of areas and volumes, as well
as on tangents of a circle.
● Ibn al-Haytham (also known as Alhazen), who, in addition to his ground breaking work
on optics and physics, established the beginnings of the link between algebra and
geometry, and devised what is now known as “Alhazen’s problem” (he was the first
mathematician to derive the formula for the sum of the fourth powers, using a method
that is readily generalizable).
● Kamal al-Din al-Farisi applied the theory of conic sections to solve optical problems, as
well as pursuing work in number theory such as on amicable numbers, factorization and
combinatorial methods.
● Ibn al-Banna al-Marrakushi works included topics such as computing square roots and
the theory of continued fractions, as well as the discovery of the first new pair of amicable
numbers since ancient times (17,296 and 18,416, later re-discovered by Fermat) and the
first use of algebraic notation since Brahmagupta.

Assessment Task 1.10

1. How did Islam influence mathematics? What math did the Islamic world give us? In
what branch of mathematics were the most important contributions of the Islamic
mathematicians?

2. Verify the theorem of Thabit ibn Qurra on amicable numbers.

Feedback

How was your experience reading the first module of this subject? Were you able to learn
something from the contributions of each period in the development of mathematics in the ancient
period? Are you confused with the different numeral systems? Was it hard to use those different

22
symbols in number operation? Well, you need to study these in order to appreciate numbers.
Remember that these are the foundation of what we are learning now in mathematics. If you are
still confused with some topics, you can always go back. Read and practice the exercises.

Summary

To aid you in reviewing the concepts in this module, here are the highlights:

❖ Babylonians measured the circumference of a circle as approximately 3 times the

diameter, which is fairly close to today’s measurement which uses the value of Pi
(around 3.14).
❖ It is believed that Ancient Egyptians used complex mathematics such as algebra,
arithmetic and geometry as far back as 3000 BC, such as equations to approximate
the area of circles.
❖ Greek mathematics developed from around the 7th century BC, producing many
important theories thanks to great mathematicians such as Pythagoras, Euclid and
Archimedes
❖ Greek became the language of scholarship throughout the Hellenistic world,
and Greek mathematics merged with Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics to give
rise to Hellenistic mathematics. In turn, Hellenistic mathematics had an influence
on Islamic mathematics (which merged it with Indian mathematics).
❖ Roman numerals originated, as the name might suggest, in ancient Rome. There
are seven basic symbols: I, V, X, L, C, D and M. The first usage of the symbols
began showing up between 900 and 800 B.C. The numerals developed out of a
need for a common method of counting, essential to communications and trade.
Counting on one's fingers got out of hand, so to speak, when you reached 10. So, a
counting system was devised based on a person's hand.
❖ The ancient Maya used mathematics to support many activities in their daily lives,
from market transactions to predicting eclipses and making sophisticated calendar
calculations. Maya mathematics is vigesimal, which means that instead of counting
by tens, Maya math counts by twenties.
❖ Chinese mathematics developed around the 11th century BC and included
important concepts related to negative numbers, decimals, algebra and geometry.
❖ Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the concept of zero
as a number, negative numbers, the solutions of quadratic equations, arithmetic,
and algebra. In addition, trigonometry was further advanced in India, and, in
particular, the modern definitions of sine and cosine were developed. Perhaps, the
most significant contribution was the decimal system that we still employ worldwide
today was first seen in India.
❖ The Hindu-Arabic numeral system began developing as early as the 1st century
with a full system being established around the 9th century, forming the basis of the
numerical digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 that we use today.

Suggested Readings

If you want to know more about mathematics in the Ancient Period, you may visit the
following sites:

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymakermath4libarts/chapter/the-mayan-numeral-system/

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https://www.preceden.com/timelines/325732-history-of-mathematics

https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/mathematics/great-moments-in-the-history-of-mathe
matics/

https://mathigon.org/timeline/

References

Boyer, Carl B. (1968). A History of Mathematics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York.

Burton, David M. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill:
New York.

Davis, P., Hersh, R., & Marchisotto, E. A. (2011). The mathematical experience. Springer Science
& Business Media.

Dunham, W. (1991). Journey through genius: The great theorems of mathematics. Wiley.

Hodgkin, L. (2005). A history of mathematics: from Mesopotamia to modernity. Oxford University

Press on Demand.

Katz, V. J. (2009). The History of Mathematics: An (3rd ed). Pearson Addison-Wesley.

Mastin, L. (2010) Prehistoric mathematics – the story of mathematics. Available at:

http://www.storyofmathematics.com/prehistoric.html (Accessed: 10 October 2016).

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