Centuries ago, astronomers carefully tracked the motion of the moon and planets
in the ancient city of Babylon,
Jupiter was a particular favorite because
it represented their main god, Marduk.
Babylonian astronomers meticulously recorded their
observations in cuneiform on clay tablets,
using simple mathematics.
But the recent translation of several tablets
shows that the Babylonians did something more.
Sometime between 350 and 50 BCE,  Babylonian astronomers used  sophisticated
geometry to track the motion of Jupiter,
14 centuries earlier than when historians had first thought such techniques
were developed.
To compute Jupiter’s position, they focused
on its movement along the ecliptic.
The ecliptic is the path that the sun appears
to trace through the stars.
The Babylonians charted Jupiter’s daily
motion against time
The chart produces a trapezoid--with the area
of the trapezoid showing how far along
the ecliptic Jupiter had traveled in a given amount of time.
Although the tablets show no actual drawings
of trapezoids,
the calculations demonstrate that the Babylonians
were in effect computing the area under a
curve to achieve an astronomical result.
That feat not only demonstrates the acumen
of these early astronomers but
foreshadows the 17th century invention of
calculus, the mathematical backbone of modern physics.
