BABYLONIAN NUMERALS.

BABYLONIAN NUMERALS.
Babylonian numerals were written in cuneiform, using a wedge-tipped reed stylus to
make a mark on a soft clay tablet which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create
a permanent record.

The Babylonians, who were famous for their astronomical observations and calculations
(aided by their invention of the abacus), used a sexagesimal (base-60) positional
numeral system inherited from either the Sumerian or the Eblaite civilizations. Neither
of the predecessors was a positional system (having a convention for which ‘end’ of the
numeral represented the units).

Trilingual Cuneiform inscription, Xerxes I (Wikipedia)

This system first appeared around 2000 BC; its structure reflects the decimal lexical
numerals of Semitic languages rather than Sumerian lexical numbers. However, the use
of a special Sumerian sign for 60 (beside two Semitic signs for the same number) attests
to a relation with the Sumerian system.

Although their system clearly had an internal decimal system they preferred to use 60
as the third smallest unit instead of 100 as we do today, it is more appropriately
considered a mixed system of bases 10 and 60. A large value when having as a base
sixty is the number results in a smaller figure that can also be divided without remainder
by two, three, four, five, and six, therefore also ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty. Only two
symbols used in a variety of combinations were used to denote the 59 numbers. A space
was left to indicate a zero (3rd century B.C.), although they later devised a sign
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 BABYLONIAN NUMERALS.

representing an empty place. This use of zero is the oldest in humanity. They only had
two symbols of different value, one that represented 1 and one that represented 10.

With these numbers they generated a succession of numbers until 59:

Four representations of the number zero were used:

The most commonly adopted theory is that 60, a number composed of many factors
(the previous and next numbers in the series would be 12 and 120), was chosen as the
basis due to its 2 × 2 × 3 × 5 factorization, which it makes it divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. In fact, it is the smallest integer divisible by all integers from 1 to
6.

Integers and fractions were represented in the same way: the separating point of
integers and fractions was not written, but was clarified by the context.

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For example, the number 53 in Babylonian numerals was represented using five times
the symbol corresponding to 10, and 3 times the symbol corresponding to 1 or only 50
and 3.

For numbers greater than 59, it should be taken into account that it is a positional system
based on sexagesimal, for example, the number 60 would be written:

1 𝑥 601 + 0 𝑥 600 = 60 + 0 = 60

Remember that every number (power) raised to 0 has a value of 1. Let's see more
examples:

1 𝑥 601 + 5 𝑥 600 = 60 + 5 = 65

1 𝑥 601 + 7 𝑥 600 = 60 + 7 = 67

1 𝑥 601 + 10 𝑥 600 = 60 + 10 = 70

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1 𝑥 601 + 23 𝑥 600 = 60 + 23 = 83

2 𝑥 601 + 15 𝑥 600 = 120 + 15 = 135

5 𝑥 601 + 15 𝑥 600 = 300 + 15 = 315

12 𝑥 601 + 34 𝑥 600 = 720 + 34 = 754

16 𝑥 601 + 40 𝑥 600 = 960 + 40 = 1 000

In this way we can represent all the numbers, being a sexagesimal system the powers
will be in base 60, let's see the first three:

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 BABYLONIAN NUMERALS.

1 𝑥 601 + 0 𝑥 600 = 60 + 0 = 60

1 𝑥 602 + 0 𝑥 601 + 0 𝑥 600 = 3 600 + 0 + 0 = 3 600

1 𝑥 603 + 0 𝑥 602 + 0 𝑥 601 + 0 𝑥 600 = 216 000 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 216 000

The number zero was invented for cases where we lack an intermediate order, for
example, the number:

1 𝑥 602 + 0 𝑥 601 + 23 𝑥 600 = 3 600 + 0 + 23 = 3 623

MATH VOCABULARY: Abacus, Sexagesimal, Mixed System, Factorization, Powers.

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