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Babylonian Maths. Numbers in base 60. What do you think these five numbers are?. What do you think these five numbers are?. 20. What do you think these five numbers are?. 20. 40. What do you think these five numbers are?. 20. 53. 40. What do you think these five numbers are?. 20. 53.
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Babylonian Maths Numbers in base 60
What do you think these five numbers are? 20 53 40 28
What do you think these five numbers are? 20 53 40 28 49
In base 60 … • Any number between 1 and 60 corresponds to the units in our numbers. • Getting to 60 in base 60 is like getting to 10 in base 10. • We don’t need a new symbol when we get to 10, and the Babylonians didn’t need a new symbol for 60.
What do you think these three numbers are? 60 + 10 60 + 20 120 + 10 = 70 = 80 = 130
What do you think these two numbers are? 2 x 60 + 13 3 x 60 + 28 = 133 = 208
Writing numbers in base 60 • You don’t have to write base 60 numbers in cuneiform symbols. • Look at these base 60 numbers – can you work out what they mean? • Can you change these base 10 numbers into base 60?
Zero • The Babylonians didn’t have a separate symbol for 0. • This number would have meant 3600 + 1 = 3601 • The zero lots of 60 would have just been a gap. • Is this a good way of showing a zero, do you think?