[thecodont]

Ping.

[GeronL]

ping... what grade is that? Probably more advanced than out high schools can understand these days. lol

[Deaf Smith]

How do they know it wasn’t a HR candidate exam for a grain distribution center?

[count-your-change]

Was the homework found in the midsection of a dog’s skeleton?

[the invisib1e hand]

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.

[Tanniker Smith]

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.

[Moonman62]

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.

[righttackle44]

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.

[BobL]

Math homework...the day childhood no longer was fun in the annals of human history.

[9YearLurker]

No, this is early evidence of torture. Presumably used on prisoners of war.

[dfwgator]