One of the first steps towards the development of the infinitesimal calculus in Europe during the seventeenth century was undertaken by Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).
Interesting to think that Babylonians used sophisticated geometric methods and arithmetic to track and record the motion of celestial bodies, and some evidence suggests they used an early form of calculus to do so. These methods were used between 350 and 50 B.C.E. Archimedes lives BCE 287-212.
I wonder when the sexagesimal notation, common in Mesopotamia, was introduced. We still use it for fractions of angular degrees. For example, 93º12'24''23''' is read as 93 degrees, 12 minutes, 24 seconds and 23 thirds, where a third is one sixtieth of a second.
In the late 3rd millennium BC, Sumerian/Akkadian units of weight included the kakkaru , approximately 30 kg) divided into 60 manû, which was further subdivided into 60 šiqlu; the descendants of these units persisted for millennia, though the Greeks later coerced this relationship into the more base-10 compatible ratio of a shekel being one 50th of a mina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal
Interesting to think that Babylonians used sophisticated geometric methods and arithmetic to track and record the motion of celestial bodies, and some evidence suggests they used an early form of calculus to do so. These methods were used between 350 and 50 B.C.E. Archimedes lives BCE 287-212.
I wonder when the sexagesimal notation, common in Mesopotamia, was introduced. We still use it for fractions of angular degrees. For example, 93º12'24''23''' is read as 93 degrees, 12 minutes, 24 seconds and 23 thirds, where a third is one sixtieth of a second.
In the late 3rd millennium BC, Sumerian/Akkadian units of weight included the kakkaru , approximately 30 kg) divided into 60 manû, which was further subdivided into 60 šiqlu; the descendants of these units persisted for millennia, though the Greeks later coerced this relationship into the more base-10 compatible ratio of a shekel being one 50th of a mina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal