Aritmetic enclases

History
See also: History of mathematics
Origin

The origins of arithmetic can be traced back to the beginnings of mathematics itself, and of
science in general. The earliest records date back to the Stone Age: bones, sticks, carved and
scratched stones with notches, presumably for counting purposes, numerical representation
and calendars.
Old age
Egyptian fractions.

There is evidence that the Babylonians had solid knowledge of almost all aspects of elementary
arithmetic around 1800 BC. C., thanks to transcriptions of cuneiform characters on clay tablets,
referring to problems of geometry and astronomy. One can only speculate about the methods
used to generate the arithmetic results, as shown, for example, on the Plimpton 322 clay
tablet, which appears to be a list of Pythagorean triples, but without showing how the list was
generated.
See also: Babylonian mathematics

The ancient texts Shulba-sutras (dated ca. 800 a.C and 200 a.C) compile the mathematical
knowledge of India during the Vedic period; They consist of geometrical data related to the
construction of fire altars, and include the problem of quadrature of the circle.
See also: Indian Mathematics

Other Mesopotamian civilizations, such as Syrians and Phoenicians, reached degrees of similar
mathematical development and used it both for trade and for solving algebraic equations.

The Egyptian numbering system, based on unit fractions, allowed for advanced arithmetic
accounts, as shown in papyri preserved as the Papyrus of Moscow or the Papyrus of Ahmes
(dating from ca. 1650 BC, although it is a copy of an ancient text of ca. 1850 BC) that shows
sums, subtractions, multiplications and divisions, using a system of fractions, as well as the
problems of determining the volume of a sphere or the volume of a truncated pyramid. The
papyrus of Ahmes is the first Egyptian text that mentions the 365 days of the Egyptian calendar,
besides being the first known solar calendar.
See also: Mathematics in Ancient Egypt
Formal arithmetic in Ancient Greece
See also: Hellenic Mathematics

Arithmetic in Ancient Greece was considered as the study of the properties of numbers, and
did not include practical calculations; the operative methods were considered a separate
science. This particularity was inherited to the Europeans during the Middle Ages, and it was
not until the Renaissance that number theory and calculation methods began to be considered
"arithmetic".
Greek mathematics makes an acute difference between the concept of number and that of
magnitude or commensurability. For the ancient Greeks, number meant what is now known as
natural number, in addition to differentiating between "number" and "geometric magnitude".
Books 7-9 of The Elements of Euclid deal with arithmetic exclusively in this sense.

Nicosoma of Gerasa (ca. 60 - 120 AD), in his Introduction to Arithmetic, summarizes the
philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato focused on numbers and their fundamental relationships.
Nicomachus makes for the first time the explicit difference between Music, Astronomy,
Geometry and Arithmetic, and gives the latter a more "modern" meaning, that is, referred to
the integers and their fundamental properties.8 The quadrivium (lat. "four roads") grouped
these four scientific disciplines related to mathematics from the Pythagorean school.

Diophantus of Alexandria (3rd century AD), is the author of Arithmetica, a series of books on
algebraic equations, where for the first time fractions are recognized as numbers and symbols
and variables are used as part of mathematical notation; rediscovered by Pierre de Fermat in
the seventeenth century. The so-called Diophantine equations led to a breakthrough in number
theory.
Middle Ages and European Renaissance

The greatest mathematical progress of the Greeks occurred between 300 BC and 200 AD. C.
After this, progress continued in Islamic regions. Mathematics flourished in particular in Iran,
Syria and India. While the discoveries were not as substantial as those carried out by Greek
science, they did contribute greatly to preserving their original works. From the eleventh
century, Adelard of Bath and later Fibonacci, introduced again in Europe this Islamic
mathematics and its translations of the Greek.9

Of the seven liberal arts in which formal studies were organized in Antiquity and the Middle
Ages, arithmetic was part of the scholastic and university teachings.10 In 1202, Fibonacci, in his
treatise Liber Abaci, introduced the decimal numbering system with Arabic numerals. The
arithmetic operations, even the most basic ones, carried out until then with Roman numerals
were very complicated; the practical importance in accounting made