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Many years ago a lecturer of mine had a photocopy of a page from a book containing a math problem ( I think it was a simple quadradic equation ) that was stated/solved in Cuneiform, Arabic, Latin scripts and Finally in modern math notation.

I have contacted my lecturer but he has no idea where it was from, nor I have been able to find it using google books searches etc.

Does anyone know where to find it?

Thank you in advance

  • 1
    This isn't the book you are looking for, but I know [Unknown Quantity](http://www.amazon.com/Quantity-Real-Imaginary-History-Algebra/dp/030909657X) by John Derbyshire presents algebraic problems in cuneiform and greek presentations.2010-11-25
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    I'm far away from my copy of Cajori, but I suspect that's where your lecturer pulled it from.2010-11-26
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    In the meantime, [here](http://books.google.com/books?id=x8ZY3RUQhMQC) is something to distract you with.2010-11-26
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    In my copy of "The Greatness That Was Babylon" by H.W.F. Saggs there is a picture of a cuneiform tablet with some math problems on it. (This is not the book you are looking for, but I just had to seize the opportunity to mention this book which I greatly enjoyed reading.)2010-11-26
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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YBC_7289#History is a cuneiform tablet with the value of $\sqrt 2$.2011-01-04
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    [These slides](http://math.arizona.edu/~wmc/Talks/Teacher_Circle_2008.pdf) contain pictures of quadratic equations in the 9th century (Arabic) and 17th century (Latin/English).2011-04-18

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It looks like it could be this book : A History Of Mathematical Notations Vol I (1928) Florian Cajori http://www.archive.org/details/historyofmathema031756mbp

It would probably interest you even if it's not the exact same one.

  • 0
    Hello, +1 for the ref, I have downloaded the pdf and going through each page to find it as I find time, If I can find the whole thing or the fragments and can make the same thing myself I still will be damn happy! Just need the same equation stated from the Ancient times to modern ( Latex !).2011-04-07
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Click on Historical overview in the section Solving polynomials at the webpage: http://www.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/gallery/index.html

This is not quite what you where asking for, as it is the solution to the quadratic, cubic, quartic, quinitic,... But I think you will still like it!