Changes

Babylonian mathematical tablets show that not only did they use multiplication, but that their system counting was sexagesimal (based on sixty) and that they were the first people to use fractions. Their geometry was also advanced enough that they used the “Pythagorean Theorem” long before it was known as such. Despite having knowledge of how the Pythagorean Theorem functioned, they never abstracted the method by asking <i>how</i> it worked as the later Greeks did. <ref> Soden, pgs. 166-8</ref>

Besides using their math to divide farming plots in their kingdom, the Babylonians were able to utilize equations to produce siege equipment and in other facets of warfare. Tablets from the First Dynasty of Babylon show students were schooled in calculations intended to divert rivers through cities in order to take down defensive walls. The math employed by Babylonian scholars was then later used by the Assyrians to invent siege engines that were truly ahead of their time. <ref> Soden, p. 85</ref>