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Ancient Egyptian Mathematics
Ancient Egyptian mathematics is the mathematics that was developed and used in Ancient Egypt 3000 to c. , from the Old Kingdom of Egypt until roughly the beginning of Hellenistic Egypt. The ancient Egyptians utilized Egyptian numerals, a numeral system for counting and solving written mathematical problems, often involving Ancient Egyptian multiplication, multiplication and Egyptian fractions, fractions. Evidence for Egyptian mathematics is limited to a scarce amount of List of ancient Egyptian papyri, surviving sources written on papyrus. From these texts it is known that ancient Egyptians understood concepts of Egyptian geometry, geometry, such as determining the surface area and volume of three-dimensional shapes useful for Ancient Egyptian architecture, architectural engineering, and Egyptian algebra, algebra, such as the false position method and quadratic equations. Overview Written evidence of the use of mathematics dates back to at least 3200 BC with the ivory labels fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narmer Macehead
The Narmer macehead is an ancient Egyptian decorative stone mace head. It was found in the “main deposit” in the temple area of the ancient Egyptian city of Nekhen ( Hierakonpolis) by James Quibell in 1898. It is dated to the Early Dynastic Period reign of king Narmer (c. 31st century BC) whose ''serekh'' is engraved on it. The macehead is now kept at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Motifs The Narmer macehead is better preserved than the Scorpion Macehead and has had various interpretations. One opinion is that, as for the Palette, the events depicted on it record the year it was manufactured and presented to the temple, a custom which is known from other finds at Hierakonpolis. A theory held by earlier scholars, including Petrie and Walter Emery, is that the macehead commemorates great occasions like Narmer's Heb Sed festival or marriage to a possible Queen Neithhotep.Walter B Emery, Archaic Egypt, Pelican Books,1961, On the left side of this macehead is a king sitti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by German Egyptologist Hanns Stock. It is best known as the period when the Hyksos people of West Asia made their appearance in Egypt and whose reign comprised the 15th Dynasty, which, according to Manetho's ''Aegyptiaca'', was founded by a king by the name of Salitis. End of the Middle Kingdom The 12th Dynasty of Egypt came to an end at the end of the 19th century BC with the death of Queen Sobekneferu (1806–1802 BC).Kim S. B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 B.C.'', Museum Tusculanum Press, Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications 20. 1997, p.185 Apparently she had no heirs, causing the 12th Dynasty to come to a sudden end, and, with it, the Golden Age of the Middle Kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (RMP; also designated as papyrus British Museum 10057 and pBM 10058) is one of the best known examples of ancient Egyptian mathematics. It is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scottish antiquarian, who purchased the papyrus in 1858 in Luxor, Egypt; it was apparently found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum. It dates to around 1550 BC. The British Museum, where the majority of the papyrus is now kept, acquired it in 1865 along with the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, also owned by Henry Rhind. There are a few small fragments held by the Brooklyn Museum in New York City and an central section is missing. It is one of the two well-known Mathematical Papyri along with the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus. The Rhind Papyrus is larger than the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, while the latter is older. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus dates to the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. It was copied by the scribe Ahmes (i.e., Ahmose; ''Ahmes'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin Papyrus 6619
The Berlin Papyrus 6619, simply called the Berlin Papyrus when the context makes it clear, is one of the primary sources of ancient Egyptian mathematics. One of the two mathematics problems on the Papyrus may suggest that the ancient Egyptians knew the Pythagorean theorem. Description, dating, and provenance The Berlin Papyrus 6619 is an ancient Egyptian papyrus document from the Middle Kingdom, second half of the 12th (c. 1990–1800 BC) or 13th Dynasty (c. 1800 BC – 1649 BC). The two readable fragments were published by Hans Schack-Schackenburg in 1900 and 1902. Connection to the Pythagorean theorem The Berlin Papyrus contains two problems, the first stated as "the area of a square of 100 is equal to that of two smaller squares. The side of one is ½ + ¼ the side of the other."Richard J. Gillings, ''Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs'', Dover, New York, 1982, 161. The interest in the question may suggest some knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, though the papyrus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kahun Papyri
The Kahun Papyri (KP; also Petrie Papyri or Lahun Papyri) are a collection of ancient Egyptian texts discussing administrative, mathematical and medical topics. Its many fragments were discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1889 and are kept at the University College London. This collection of papyri is one of the largest ever found. Most of the texts are dated to ca. 1825 BC, to the reign of Amenemhat III. In general the collection spans the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The texts span a variety of topics: *Business papers of the cult of Senusret II. *Hymns to king Senusret III. *The Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, which deals with gynaecological illnesses and conditions. *The Lahun Mathematical Papyri are a collection of mathematical texts. *A veterinarian papyrus. *A late Middle Kingdom account, listing festivals. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lahun Mathematical Papyri
The Lahun Mathematical Papyri (also known as the Kahun Mathematical Papyri) is an ancient Egyptian mathematical text. It forms part of the Kahun Papyri, which was discovered at El-Lahun (also known as Lahun, Kahun or Il-Lahun) by Flinders Petrie during excavations of a workers' town near the pyramid of the 12th dynasty pharaoh Sesostris II. The Kahun Papyri are a collection of texts including administrative texts, medical texts, veterinarian texts and six fragments devoted to mathematics. Fragments The mathematical texts most commented on are usually named: * Lahun IV.2 (or Kahun IV.2) (UC 32159): This fragment contains a table of Egyptian fraction representations of numbers of the form 2/''n''. A more complete version of this table of fractions is given in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.Clagett, Marshall ''Ancient Egyptian Science, A Source Book''. Volume Three: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society) American Philosophical Society. 1999 ; Ann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll
The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll (EMLR) is a 10 × 17 in (25 × 43 cm) leather roll purchased by Alexander Henry Rhind in 1858. It was sent to the British Museum in 1864, along with the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, but it was not chemically softened and unrolled until 1927 (Scott, Hall 1927). The writing consists of Middle Kingdom hieratic characters written right to left. Scholars date the EMLR to the 17th century BCE.Clagett, Marshall. Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book. Volume 3: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 232. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1999, pp. 17–18, 25, 37–38, 255–257 Mathematical content This leather roll is an aid for computing Egyptian fractions. It contains 26 sums of unit fractions which equal another unit fraction. The sums appear in two columns, and are followed by two more columns which contain exactly the same sums.Annette Imha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus
The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, also named the Golenishchev Mathematical Papyrus after its first non-Egyptian owner, Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev, is an ancient Egyptian mathematical papyrus containing several problems in arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. Golenishchev bought the papyrus in 1892 or 1893 in Thebes. It later entered the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, where it remains today. Based on the palaeography and orthography of the hieratic text, the text was most likely written down in the 13th Dynasty and based on older material probably dating to the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, roughly 1850 BC.Clagett, Marshall. 1999. Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book. Volume 3: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 232. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. Approximately 5½ m (18 ft) long and varying between wide, its format was divided by the Soviet Orientalist Vasily Vasilievich Stru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twelfth Dynasty Of Egypt
The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some scholars only consider the 11th and 12th dynasties to be part of the Middle Kingdom. History The chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty is the most stable of any period before the New Kingdom. The Turin Royal Canon gives 213 years (1991–1778 BC). Manetho stated that it was based in Thebes, but from contemporary records it is clear that the first king of this dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved its capital to a new city named "Amenemhat-itj-tawy" ("Amenemhat the Seizer of the Two Lands"), more simply called, Itjtawy. The location of Itjtawy has not been discovered yet, but is thought to be near the Fayyum, probably near the royal graveyards at el-Lisht. The order of its rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty is well known from several sources: two lists re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Egyptian Units Of Measurement
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history covers all continents inhabited by humans in the period 3000 BCAD 500. The three-age system periodizes ancient history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age, with recorded history generally considered to begin with the Bronze Age. The start and end of the three ages varies between world regions. In many regions the Bronze Age is generally considered to begin a few centuries prior to 3000 BC, while the end of the Iron Age varies from the early first millennium BC in some regions to the late first millennium AD in others. During the time period of ancient history, the world population was already exponentially increasing due to the Neolithic Revolution, which was in full progress. While in 10,000 BC, the world population stood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cubit
The cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. It was primarily associated with the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Israelites. The term ''cubit'' is found in the Bible regarding Noah's Ark, Ark of the Covenant, Tabernacle, Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by th .... The ''common cubit'' was divided into 6 palms × 4 Finger (unit), fingers = 24 digit (unit), digits. ''Royal cubits'' added a palm for 7 palms × 4 fingers = 28 digits. These lengths typically ranged from , with an ancient Roman cubit being as long as . Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in ancient history, antiquity, during the Middle Ages and as recently as Early modern Europe, early modern time ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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