Keywords: mathematics, Egypt, Papyri; Rhind Papyri; Moscow Papyri; Egiptian numerals, fractions, multiplication, division, pyramids, calendar, Gods Horus, Sesheta and Thoth
The Egyptian civilisation had reached a high level of achievement at an early period. About 3000 years BC the Egyptians had already devised the hierogliphic script, which can be found on temples, stone monuments, and vases. The hierogliphic numbers were 7 - the powers of 10 up to a million.
With the finding of the papyrus there came the need for an easier and quicker to write script and the hieratic symbols were devised. The new system offered a much more compact way of writing numeras, but also required more simbols to be memorised - 36. From this time date two main historical sources - The Rhind Papyrus and the Moscow Papyrus. The Rhind Papyrus dates from about 1650 BC and contains 87 problems, most of which deal with fractions. Operating with Egyptian numerals is very complex, because the numeral system is not suitable for multiplicatin and divisin. The Moscow Papyrus date from about the same time as the Rhind and contains 25 problems. It is now in The Moscow Museum of Fine Arts, while the Rhind Papyrus is in the Louvre in Paris.
A very important aspect of Egyptian mathematical knowledge are the pyramids. In their geometry are input remarkable for such an early period mathematical functions.
For the ancient Egyptians, mathematics was related to the gods invariably. Most important are Horus, Thoth and Sesheta. Horus was god of Egyptian fractions, Thoth was the god of geometry and mathematics as a whole, and Sesheta was godess of knowledge.
Achievement of Egyptian mathematics is calendar, from which were derived the calendars, used as Julian and Gregorian.
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Created: 3 October 2006
Updated: 1 October 2015
