The ancient Babylonians were the first to use geometry, around 2000 BC, measuring land and constructing structures. While Euclid is typically credited with inventing geometry in 350 BC in Greece, the Egyptians and Mesopotamians were using basic geometric concepts as early as 3000 BC and 1500 years before Pythagoras, respectively. New evidence from Babylonian clay tablets shows they were calculating the area of celestial trapezoids to measure the speed and position of Jupiter as early as 350 BC, over 1000 years before Europeans developed the complex geometry needed for such calculations.

1. THE FIRST TO USE
GEOMETRY
THE ANCIENT BABYLONIANS

2. GEOMETRY
Literally means “to measure the Earth”

3. YOU WERE PROBABLY TAUGHT THAT EUCLID
INVENTED GEOMETRY IN ANCIENT GREECE AROUND
350BC
That information is incorrect.
1) Egyptians were using basic geometry in 3000BC
2) Mesopotamians were using basic geometry in 2000BC
(they even knew the Pythagorean theorem 1500 years before Pythagorus was born)

4. EARLY USES OF SIMPLE GEOMETRY
• Egyptians and Babylonians used simple Geometry in
• 1) construction
• 2) land estimation

5. EUCLID WRITES RULES FOR GEOMETRY AROUND
350BC
• Greek Geometry dealt with spatial relationships between
1) objects and shapes
2) relationship of Earth to other celestial bodies
**Did not measure speed of objects or distance travelled of moving
celestial bodies

6. COMPLEX GEOMETRY
• Adds curves to trace the position and velocity of moving objects
• European scholars in Oxford and Paris developed this in the 1300s

7. CUNEIFORM WRITING
• Professor Mathieu Ossendrivjer of Humboldt
University in Berlin examined Babylonian tablets
in the British museum archives
• Information on this stone shows that the
Babylonians used complex Geometry to trace
the position and velocity of moving objects as
early as
350BC

8. ACCORDING TO INFORMATION ON THIS TABLET
• The Babylonians calculated the area
of a celestial trapezoid to measure:
• 1) when Jupiter would appear
• 2) speed of the planet Jupiter
• 3) distance that Jupiter travelled
*Jupiter was believed to represent the
god Marduk

9. Basically, Babylonians were measuring the
movement of planets 1000 years before
Europeans “discovered” how to do so!

10. WORKS CITED
• Morelle, Rebecca. "Ancient Babylonians 'first to Use Geometry'" Bbc.com. BBC News. Web. 29 Jan. 2016