Abstract
The basic arithmetic operations of the elementary school, multiplying and dividing, appear to have derived from extremely early economic needs, certainly earlier than the emergence of civilisations using writing. One of the earliest pieces of evidence of an algorithm of this type is to be found on a clay tablet found at Shuruppak, near Baghdad which concerns a problem of sharing. Engraved by a Sumerian at about 2500 BC, this tablet (see Section 1.1) illustrates the first of the ten episodes which we have chosen to illustrate a history which would occupy several volumes if it were to be written up in detail.
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Chabert, JL. (1999). Algorithms for Arithmetic Operations. In: Chabert, JL. (eds) A History of Algorithms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18192-4_2
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