Babylonian Maths Make Your Own Clay Tablet Clay

Babylonian Maths Make Your Own Clay Tablet

Clay Tablets • Look at the clay tablet on the right. • Babylonian scribes wrote on clay tablets, not on paper. • Why do you think they did this?

To make your own clay tablet You will need: • some play-dough, clay or plasticene • a chopstick (or similar) with a square end – it has to be a square end, not a round one

Babylonian numbers • Press the square end of the chopstick into the clay. • Twist it. • You want a mark something like the left-hand one on the photo above or like one of the top set of marks drawn on the right. • You have now made a Babylonian ‘ 1’. • If you don’t like it, just rub it out with your thumb and try again.

• What do you think these numbers are? • What do you notice about how they are arranged?

Babylonian numbers • This time, make a mark with your chopstick (still the square end) but turn it so it is at an angle of about 45 degrees. • You should get a wedge shape, a bit like an arrow head. • You want a mark something like the right-hand one on the photo above or like one of the two wedges drawn on the right. • You have now made a Babylonian ‘ 10’.

• What do you think these three numbers are? • What do you notice about the way they are arranged this time?

Base 60 • The Babylonians worked in base 60. • What do you know that is counted in 60 s? • What number base do we normally work in? • Can you think of anything that isn’t measured in lots of 10 s or 60 s?

Base 60 • What happens to our numbers when we get to 9 or 999? • What would the equivalent numbers be in base 60? • How do you think the Babylonians might have written 61? Hint: you don’t need six lots of 10 – why not?