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One of the earliest known examples of math homework
BoingBoing ^
| at 10:42 am Thursday, Dec 1 2011
| By Maggie Koerth-Baker
Posted on 12/01/2011 7:56:37 PM PST by thecodont
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1
posted on
12/01/2011 7:56:40 PM PST
by
thecodont
To: SunkenCiv
2
posted on
12/01/2011 7:57:33 PM PST
by
thecodont
To: thecodont
ping... what grade is that? Probably more advanced than out high schools can understand these days. lol
3
posted on
12/01/2011 8:00:52 PM PST
by
GeronL
(The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
To: thecodont
How do they know it wasn’t a HR candidate exam for a grain distribution center?
To: thecodont
Was the homework found in the midsection of a dog’s skeleton?
5
posted on
12/01/2011 8:04:32 PM PST
by
count-your-change
(You don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
To: thecodont
When analyzing these tablets, Marvin Powell commented famously that it was, "written by a bungler who did not know the front from the back of his tablet, did not know the difference between standard numerical notation and area notation, and succeeded in making half a dozen writing errors in as many lines." Mr. Powell probably could count his friends on one hand.
To: count-your-change
Was the homework found in the midsection of a dogs skeleton?lols.
Re the tagline: it's probably easier to be brilliant than to not be stupid.
To: thecodont
Now I can rail against the use of "B.C.E." and attempts to eradicate Christ -- particular since I went to the original site and looked around and found that Doctor Duncan J. Melville, who teaches this History of Mathematics course, uses "BC" in his dates.
Shame of boingboing.
8
posted on
12/01/2011 8:15:07 PM PST
by
Tanniker Smith
(I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
To: Tanniker Smith; BoingBoing
"Shame of boingboing. "
Ping
9
posted on
12/01/2011 8:22:07 PM PST
by
Paladin2
To: thecodont
The tablets give the statement of the problem and its answer (164571 men - expressed in the sexagesimal system Sexagesimal is base 60 and is used for time keeping. 60 is a highly composite number, which is why it's easy to break down time into intervals such as quarter and half hours. It's very convenient when math has to be done in your head. 10 which is the base of the Communist metric system isn't highly composite.
10
posted on
12/01/2011 8:23:50 PM PST
by
Moonman62
(The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
To: Moonman62
Wouldn’t that be the fault of the Arabs for not inventing enough digits?
11
posted on
12/01/2011 8:30:41 PM PST
by
Paladin2
To: thecodont; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
12
posted on
12/01/2011 8:33:12 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
(It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: count-your-change
13
posted on
12/01/2011 9:04:06 PM PST
by
CrazyIvan
(Obama's birth certificate was found stapled to Soros's receipt.)
To: thecodont
The problem sounds so much like the ones in the high school freshman algebra texts we used—until we get to the base 60 system. Made me a little lonesome for so many friends and buddies.
14
posted on
12/01/2011 9:27:40 PM PST
by
righttackle44
(I may not be much, but I raised a United States Marine)
To: Paladin2
We’re able to do timekeeping with a combination of the two systems.
15
posted on
12/01/2011 9:56:01 PM PST
by
Moonman62
(The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
To: Moonman62
16
posted on
12/01/2011 10:38:52 PM PST
by
Erasmus
(I love "The Raven," but then what do I know? I'm just a poetaster.)
To: Erasmus
I found this in the entry for Metric Time on Wiki:
An opening scene of Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis shows a metric clock with ten numbers instead of twelve, illustrating the improved efficiency of future industrial society.
I like movie references but didn't know about that one.
17
posted on
12/01/2011 10:55:20 PM PST
by
Moonman62
(The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
To: thecodont
Math homework...the day childhood no longer was fun in the annals of human history.
18
posted on
12/02/2011 4:25:38 AM PST
by
BobL
("Heartless" and "Inhumane" FReepers for Cain - we've HAD ENOUGH)
To: thecodont
No, this is early evidence of torture. Presumably used on prisoners of war.
To: BobL
Math homework was fun up to Advanced Differential Equations.
20
posted on
12/02/2011 5:41:56 AM PST
by
Paladin2
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