Jupiter 'trapezoid' procedure texts
BM 40054 (Text A), BM 34757, BM 35915 and others; interpreted in M. Ossendrijver, 'Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter's position from the area under a time-velocity graph', Science 351 (2016) 482–484
Five British Museum tablets, four with a trapezoid calculation and one with an equivalent computation without the figure, work out how far Jupiter moves in the 60 days after it first appears as a morning star. Its daily speed is taken to fall linearly, so the total distance (10;45 degrees) equals the area of a trapezoid on a speed-against-time plot, and bisecting the trapezoid gives the moment half the distance is covered. This models Jupiter slowing toward its first station, but the 60-day window ends before the station and contains no retrograde motion.
- Author
- Anonymous (Babylonian scribes)
- Date
- c. 350–50 BCE
- Original language
- Akkadian
- Kind
- Mathematical astronomy
- Planets
- Jupiter
Editions
2 editions.
| Year | Edition | © |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | M. Ossendrijver, 'Ancient Babylonian astronomers calculated Jupiter's position from the area under a time-velocity graph', Science 351 no. 6272 (29 Jan 2016) 482–484, doi:10.1126/science.aad8085 (with Supplementary Materials editing BM 40054 and BM 35915) | © |
| 2018 | M. Ossendrijver, 'Bisecting the trapezoid: tracing the origins of a Babylonian computation of Jupiter's motion', Archive for History of Exact Sciences 72 (2018), doi:10.1007/s00407-018-0204-4 | © |
Read it
No digitised copy known.
No digitised copy known. The editions above are the way in.
Myths we don’t repeat
Checked, and left out.
- Myth 01
Not a calculation of Jupiter's retrograde loop: the 60-day window ends before the first station.
- Myth 02
Not 'Babylonian calculus': that is press shorthand, not Ossendrijver's claim.
References
Also on the Mesopotamia shelf
| Date | Source | Planets | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1700–1550 BCE (observations); copies from the 8th–7th centuries BCE | Venus Tablet of AmmiṣaduqaAnonymous (Babylonian)Astrological | General | Astrological |
| c. 652–61 BCE | Astronomical DiariesAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Observation | Me Ve Ma Ju Sa | Observation |
| c. 380–50 BCE | Babylonian planetary ephemeridesAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Math. astronomy | Me Ve Ma Ju Sa | Math. astronomy |
| 3rd–1st centuries BCE | Goal-Year TextsAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Observation | Me Ve Ma Ju Sa | Observation |
| c. 3rd–1st centuries BCE | Almanacs and Normal Star AlmanacsAnonymous (Babylonian scribes)Math. astronomy | Ma Ju Sa | Math. astronomy |
| 1889 | Astronomisches aus BabylonJoseph Epping & Johann N. StrassmaierMath. astronomy | General | Math. astronomy |