Made to Measure

I thought today we would take some time to talk math and Ancient Egypt, though, I am going to handle it in sections over the next few days. I wanted to start with some Egyptian mathematical firsts.

They were the first to:

-have what a modern person would recognize as a ruler to measure.

-have a standardized measurement system for both architecture and science; including building, math, astronomy, weather studies and the like.

-have a standard of fractions.

-use the number one million, and often millions of millions.

- explore the geometry of hemispheres, circles, rectangles, triangles, cylinders and of course pyramids.

-have examples of multiplication.

-have a calculation to control recipes: beer strength as a function of grain.

- add very small fractions such as 1/500th

-write down problems involving scaling shapes.

-write problems involving calculations of volume.

-write formulas for the area of a circle.

If you are interested in the above you can take a peek at the following resources.

Works of Nora E Scott on the Egyptian Cubit Rods.

Egyptian papyri that contain math topics and math problems:

-Moscow Mathematical Papyrus

-Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll

-Lahun Mathematical Papyri

-Berlin Papyrus (Usually referred to as a medical papyrus due to the inclusion of prenatal medicine and pregnancy test information.)

-Akhmim wooden tablets

-Reisner Papyrus

-Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

A rather poor scan of the Rhind papyrus. approx. 1650 BC