ENGLISH

Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science -- from the Babylonians to the Maya

By Dick Teresi

Book information

Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Year
2002
ISBN
9780684837185, 0684837188
LCC
Q124.95 .T47 2002
Open Library ID
OL14437522M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
7 MB (6935209 bytes)
Pages
467\467
Topic
History
Library
mexmat
Time added
2009-07-20 03:45:11

Description

Lost Discoveries, Dick Teresi's innovative history of science, explores the unheralded scientific breakthroughs from peoples of the ancient world - Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, Africans, New World and Oceanic tribes, among others - and the non-European medieval world. They left an enormous heritage in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology.The mathematical foundation of Western science is a gift from the Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Babylonians, and Maya. The ancient Egyptians developed the concept of the lowest common denominator, and they developed a fraction table that modern scholars estimate required 28,000 calculations to compile. The Babylonians developed the first written math and used a place-value number system. Our numerals, 0 through 9, were invented in ancient India; the Indians also boasted geometry, trigonometry, and a kind of calculus.

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