Ancient Babylonian algorithms
1972/07/01 by Donald E. Knuth · 10 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Algorithm #Computer science #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #History #History and Theory of Mathematics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1145/361454.361514
openalex publication_date 1972/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract
The early origins of mathematics are discussed, emphasizing those aspects which seem to be of greatest interest from the standpoint of computer science. A number of old Babylonian tablets, many of which have never before been translated into English, are quoted.
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- Ancient Algorithms for a Modern Curriculum
- Computer Science and its Relation to Mathematics
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- The Early Development of Programming Languages**The preparation of this paper has been supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant No. MCS 72-03752 A03, by the Office of Naval Research contract N00014-76-C-0330, and by IBM Corporation. The authors wish to thank the originators of the languages cited for their many helpful comments on early drafts of this paper.††Reprinted from J. Belzer, A. G. Holzman, and A. Kent (eds.), “Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology,” Vol. 6, pp. 419–493. Dekker, New York, 1977. Courtesy of Marcel Dekker, Inc.
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