Ancient Babylonian algorithms

@article{Knuth1972AncientBA,
  title={Ancient Babylonian algorithms},
  author={Donald Ervin Knuth},
  journal={Commun. ACM},
  year={1972},
  volume={15},
  pages={671-677}
}
  • D. Knuth
  • Published 1 July 1972
  • Computer Science
  • Commun. ACM
The early origins of mathematics are discussed, emphasizing those aspects which seem to be of greatest interest from the standpoint of computer science. A number of old Babylonian tablets, many of which have never before been translated into English, are quoted. 
View on ACM
realtechsupport.org
83 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
20
Methods Citations
7

Topics from this paper

    83 Citations

    Citation Type

    Citation Type

    A personal account of Turing's imprint on the development of computer science
    TLDR
    The vision of that period and of the role that Alan Turing and some of his contemporary peers played in that development of the digital computer are sketched.
    The Philosophy of Computer Science
    TLDR
    An introduction to some of the philo-sophical issues that surround and underpin the academic discipline of computer science are provided.
    Computer Science and its Relation to Mathematics
    • D. Knuth
    • Computer Science, Mathematics
    • 1974
    TLDR
    A personal view of how this subject interacts with Mathematics is given, by discussing the similarities and differences between the two fields, and by examining some of the ways in which they help each other.
    From Babbage to Babel and Beyond: A Brief History of Programming Languages
    Abstract The history of computer programming languages is reviewed, with emphasis on the influences of early languages on later efforts. Four generations of software are presented, beginning with…
    The Algorithm Concept - Tool for Historiographic Interpretation or Red Herring?
    TLDR
    The paper discusses the relevance of the algorithm concept, on one hand as an analytical tool for the understanding and comparison of mathematical procedures, on the other as a possible key to how pre-Modern reckoners thoughttheir mathematics and to how they thought about it.
    From Universal to Programming Languages
    TLDR
    A class of non-natural languages created in the same period and sometimes by the same scientists involved in logic, mathematics, and computability, such as Descartes, Leibniz and Peano is analyzed.
    Histories of algorithms: Past, present and future
    The book under review, first published some twenty years ago, is the product of a group of French historians of mathematics: Jean-Luc Chabert, Evelyn Barbin, Michel Guillemot, Anne Michel-Pajus,…
    The Oldest Trig in the Book
    • H. Boas
    • Mathematics
      The College Mathematics Journal
    • 2019
    Harold P. Boas (boas@tamu.edu) defended his PhD dissertation on functions of several complex variables the year that Talley’s Folly (by Lanford Wilson) won a Pulitzer Prize. He has been a faculty…
    Explicit and less explicit algorithmic thinking, 1200-1500
    An introductory section discusses the utility of the algorithm concept in the historiographic analysis of non-recent mathematics, in particular the sense that can be given to claims that a particular…
    A first problem for the algorithms course
    TLDR
    I present a problem to be used in the first class of the algorithms course as an introduction to the topic, simple but rich enough to illustrate several issues.
    ...
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    ...

    References

    SHOWING 1-10 OF 11 REFERENCES
    Episodes from the early history of mathematics
    1. Babylonian mathematics 2. Early Greek mathematics and Euclid s construction of the regular pentagon 3. Three samples of Archimedean mathematics 4. Ptolemy s construction of a trigonometric table.
    Mathematical Cuneiform Texts
    A COMPREHENSIVE work on Babylonian mathematics in English has long been wanted. Apart from a few isolated articles in periodicals, the only material available hitherto was in German. The texts…
    Mathematische Keilschrift-Texte
    THIS Part 3 of the volume of mathematical cuneiform texts forming vol. 3 of Section A of the “Quellen. und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Astronomie und Physik”, though only supplementary to…
    The exact sciences in antiquity.
    • O. Neugebauer
    • History, Computer Science
      Acta historica scientiarum naturalium et medicinalium
    • 1951
    TLDR
    The origin of the history of science in classical readings questions for discussion iup personal websites read about drew brees trupin the source of the materiality of time in antiquity materiale textkulturen.
    Seminumerical Algorithms
    • Seminumerical Algorithms
    • 1971
    Table errata: The art of computer programming, Vol. 2: Seminumerical algorithms (Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1969) by Donald E. Knuth
    Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics.
    The Netherlands, 1938, 243 pp. 9. van der Waerden, B.L. Science Awakening. Tr
    • Communications of the ACM July
    • 1954
    Mathematical Cuneiform Texts.
    Textes Math~matiques Babyloniens
    • The Netherlands, 1938,
    • 1938
    ...
    1
    2
    ...