Egypt
- Online Article: Writing That Cannot Be Erased
Today seems to be my day for posting information that is over a year old. Thanks to the Finds and Features blog for pointing out that the following article is available online as part of Volume 1 of the Technical Research Bulletin, available on the British...
- Pi, Phi And The Great Pyramid - Updated
Al Ahram Weekly (Assem Deif) UPDATE: Author Assem Deif emailed me yesterday to ask me to post a correction that was not made in the original article The editor of Al-Ahram wrote a sentence in line 4 of the 2nd paragraph, he said: They worked out that...
- No Calculators, Just A Brush And Papyrus
The Signal David Reimer, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, presented "The Strange Math of the Egyptians" at the College on Nov 14. The lecture focused on re-evaluating how modern mathematicians view ancient Egyptian mathematics. Reimer,...
- Egyptian Math Problems
Let's Play Math! (Denise) This is a blog devoted to mathematical problems. This rent post on the blog takes a problem from the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: This week’s page from my old newsletter contains a math “magic trick” from the Rhind...
- El Kab Site Updated
The following is taken from Tony Cagle's Archaeoblog at http://www.archaeoblog.blogspot.com/: "Thierry Benderitter has put up some new pages on his El Kab site:The tomb of Paheri:http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/el_kab/pahery/e_pahery1.htm . This...
Egypt
The Ahmes code
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/844/heritage.htm
"The Egyptians needed fractions to divide food and supplies according to specific ratios. Fractions were so important that of the 87 problems in the Ahmes Papyrus only six did not involve them. Likewise, of the 25 problems in the Moscow Papyrus 22 involved calculations with fractions. Because the Egyptians performed multiplications and divisions by doubling and halving, it was necessary to double fractions too. Scribes created tables of calculations of fractions along with integers. These tables would be used as references, so that the chief of personnel could carry out the fractional divisions on site. With the exception of the frequently-used fraction 2/3, and the less frequent 3/4, a scribe, being asked to divide an object into a certain number of pieces, would express his fractions as a sum of unit fractions, i.e. limiting them mainly to fractions of the form 1/n where n is a positive integer. Mathematicians call these types of fractions Egyptian Fractions and request, as Ahmes did, that the unit fractions be distinct. A unit fraction is represented in hieroglyphic numerals by placing a mouth, which meant "part", above the number."
Ouch! My brain hurts. See the above page for the rest of this fascinating article by Assem Deif .
- Online Article: Writing That Cannot Be Erased
Today seems to be my day for posting information that is over a year old. Thanks to the Finds and Features blog for pointing out that the following article is available online as part of Volume 1 of the Technical Research Bulletin, available on the British...
- Pi, Phi And The Great Pyramid - Updated
Al Ahram Weekly (Assem Deif) UPDATE: Author Assem Deif emailed me yesterday to ask me to post a correction that was not made in the original article The editor of Al-Ahram wrote a sentence in line 4 of the 2nd paragraph, he said: They worked out that...
- No Calculators, Just A Brush And Papyrus
The Signal David Reimer, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, presented "The Strange Math of the Egyptians" at the College on Nov 14. The lecture focused on re-evaluating how modern mathematicians view ancient Egyptian mathematics. Reimer,...
- Egyptian Math Problems
Let's Play Math! (Denise) This is a blog devoted to mathematical problems. This rent post on the blog takes a problem from the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: This week’s page from my old newsletter contains a math “magic trick” from the Rhind...
- El Kab Site Updated
The following is taken from Tony Cagle's Archaeoblog at http://www.archaeoblog.blogspot.com/: "Thierry Benderitter has put up some new pages on his El Kab site:The tomb of Paheri:http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/el_kab/pahery/e_pahery1.htm . This...