How Did Ancient Egyptians Do Mathematics?
In short: Egyptian scribes wrote numbers in a base-10 hieroglyphic system and used them to keep tax accounts, work out rations and re-measure flooded fields; most of what we know comes from scribal papyrus textbooks such as the Rhind papyrus.
A 1:20 short film in the series “From Fingers to Qubits”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.
Sources used in this film: The British Museum, “Learn maths like an Egyptian: the secrets of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus”; MacTutor History of Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews (J J O'Connor and E F Robertson), “Egyptian numerals”; University of California, Riverside, Department of Mathematics (Math 153 course notes, adapted from wrightmath.info material), “egyptian-addition.pdf”; MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews, “Egyptian mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics”; MacTutor History of Mathematics archive (University of St Andrews), “Egyptian Papyri”; Academia.edu (paper by Hans Barnard, 2006, from The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine), “Surveying in ancient Egypt (from: The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine)”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Mathematics - Ancient Egypt, Numbers, Geometry | Britannica”.
Sources used in this film
- The British Museum — Learn maths like an Egyptian: the secrets of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus · View →
- MacTutor History of Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews (J J O'Connor and E F Robertson) — Egyptian numerals · View →
- University of California, Riverside, Department of Mathematics (Math 153 course notes, adapted from wrightmath.info material) — egyptian-addition.pdf · View →
- MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews — Egyptian mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics · View →
- MacTutor History of Mathematics archive (University of St Andrews) — Egyptian Papyri · View →
- Academia.edu (paper by Hans Barnard, 2006, from The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine) — Surveying in ancient Egypt (from: The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine) · View →
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Mathematics - Ancient Egypt, Numbers, Geometry | Britannica · View →
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The British Museum: Learn maths like an Egyptian: the secrets of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
- Also: MacTutor History of Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews (J J O'Connor and E F Ro: Egyptian numerals
- Also: University of California, Riverside, Department of Mathematics (Math 153 course notes, adapted from wrightmath.info mate: egyptian-addition.pdf
- Also: MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews: Egyptian mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics
- Also: MacTutor History of Mathematics archive (University of St Andrews): Egyptian Papyri
- Also: Academia.edu (paper by Hans Barnard, 2006, from The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine): Surveying in ancient Egypt (from: The History of Science, Technology, and Medicine)
- Also: Mathematics - Ancient Egypt, Numbers, Geometry | Britannica
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