Sept 30 Blogging for Babylonian ‘algebra’ from Crest of the Peacock

 

"In particular, we own to the Arabs in the field of mathematics the bringing together of the technique of measurement, evolved from its Egyptian roots to its final form in the hands of the Alexandrians, and the remarkable instrument of computation (our number system) which originated in India; and the supplementing of these strands with a systematic and consistent language of calculation which came to be known by its Arabic name, algebra. "

                                                                                      -  from Crest of the peacock, page 7

I like this quote because it show how so many nations gathered together their knowlege to reach an outcome on what we are learning today.  

Before the development of algebra and algebraic notation, Old Babylonians used symbolic notations to state general mathematical principles. They used words in their language to describe the mathematical terms. For example, ush means length, sag means breadth, asha means area. So  ush multiply by sag result asha. The Babylonians were also able to solve quadratic equations in its symbolic variant very similar to our modern day notation. 

Math is certainly not all about generalization and abstraction, it is about the thinking behind these generalizations. Without algebra, we could try stating general or abstract relationships verbally with words (jsut like the Old Babylonians). However, this adds more complication to understanding the gerneralizations or abstractions.