Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c5.s5.11

c5.s5.11

Amongst other nations¹, Babylonians (c. 2000 B.C.) on their cuneiform clay tablets included some special symbols for ⅔, 2/18, 4/18 and 5/7 etc. Egyptians, Greeks as well as the Romans dealt with unit fraction. Chang Chiu-Chien (6th century A.D.) remarked in the preface of his *Arithmetical classic* that the chinese found it difficult to express a fractional number and to perform any operation with them. Even as late as 10th century A.D. Rabbi Saadia ben Joshep al-Fayyaumi, a Hebrew writer living in Egypt made wide use of the unit fraction in his computations.