In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher (or harpedonaptai) was a

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

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measured Measurement is the quantification of attributes of an object or event, which can be used to compare with other objects or events. In other words, measurement is a process of determining how large or small a physical quantity is as compared t ...

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using knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the Theban Necropolis. Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet, which are still in use by modern surveyors. The commissioning of a new sacred building was a solemn occasion in which pharaohs and other high-ranking officials personally stretched ropes to define the foundation. This important ceremony, and therefore rope-stretching itself, are attested over 3000 years from the early dynastic period to the Ptolemaic kingdom. Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and

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 ...

References

* * ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Encyclopædia Britannica 1974 * James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, Chicago 1906 * Joel F. PAULSON, "Surveying in Ancient Egypt,", FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16-21, 2005

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surveying instruments

proportions
"The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks"

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egyptian technology Surveying Egyptian inventions {{AncientEgypt-stub

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