MATHEMATICS IN ANCIENT EGYPT

SEMINAR REPORT

KRISHNAVENI.K
KH.SC.P2MAT20006

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MATHEMATICS

AMRITA VISWA VIDYAPEETHAM

AMRITA SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
KOCHI
DECEMBER 2021
 CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. MANKIND’S FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF 3

MATHEMATICS

3. NUMBER SYSTEM AND ARITHMETIC 6

OPERATIONS

4. GEOMETRY 11

5. PYRAMIDS 13

6. SEKED 15

7. TRIANGULATION 18

8. PYRAMIDOLOGY, IRRATIONAL 19
NUMBERS AND PYTHAGOREAN
TRIANGLES

9. INCLINED SURFACES AND THE 21

ROYAL CUBIT

10. WORKED OUT PROBLEMS 23

11. TRACING BACK TO THE ROOTS 25

12. CONCLUSION 29

13. BIBLIOGRAPHY 31
 INTRODUCTION

Egyptian mathematics refers to mathematics written in the Egyptian language.

From the Hellenistic period, Greek replaced Egyptian as the written language
of Egyptian scholars. Mathematical study in Egypt later continued under
the Arab Empire as part of Islamic mathematics, when Arabic became the
written language of Egyptian scholars.

The most extensive Egyptian mathematical text is the Rhind

papyrus (sometimes also called the Ahmes Papyrus after its author), dated to
1650 BC but likely a copy of an older document from the Middle Kingdom of
about 2000–1800 BC. It is an instruction manual for students in arithmetic and
geometry. In addition to giving area formulas and methods for multiplication,
division and working with unit fractions, it also contains evidence of other
mathematical knowledge, including composite and prime numbers,
arithmetic, geometric and harmonic means and simplistic understandings of
both the Sieve of Eratosthenes and perfect number theory. It also shows how to
solve first order linear equations as well as arithmetic and geometric series.

The history of Egyptian mathematics is based on the extant original documents

written by scribes. In the case of Egypt these documents are few, they are all of
a type and leave little doubt that Egyptian mathematics was, on the whole,
elementary and profoundly practical in its orientation. The introduction of
writing in Egypt in the pre-dynastic period brought with it the formation of a
special class of literate professionals, the scribes.

1
By virtue of their writing skills, the scribes took on all the duties of a civil
service namely, record keeping, tax accounting, the management of public
works (building projects and the like), even the prosecution of war through
overseeing military supplies and payrolls. Young men enrolled in scribal
schools to learn the essentials of the trade, which included not only reading and
writing but also the basics of mathematics.

In this seminar, we are trying to dive more into the geometrical aspects of
mathematics that were used widely in ancient Egypt. Egypt has been known to
the mass as a country with one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Pyramids of
Giza is the oldest wonders and the only one to remain intact. This seminar will
also cover the mathematical vertical of the construction of those pyramids.

2
 MANKIND’S FIRST KNOWLEDGE OF
MATHEMATICS

Our first knowledge of mathematics beyond mere counting comes from the
Egyptians and Babylonians. Both civilizations developed mathematics that was
similar in some ways but different in others. The mathematics of Egypt, at least
what is known from the papyri, can essentially be called applied arithmetic. It
was practical information communicated via example on how to solve specific
problems. This point, that mathematics was communicated by example, rather
than by principle, is significant and is different than today’s mathematics that is
communicated essentially by principle with examples to illustrate principles.
The reasons for this are unknown but could be due partly to the fact that
symbolism, the medium of principles, did not exist in these early times. Indeed,
much of mathematics for many centuries was communicated in this way. It may
be much easier to explain to a young student an algorithm to solve a problem
and for them to learn to solve like problems, than to explain the abstract concept
first and basing examples upon this concept.

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 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.

3
The first part of the Rhind papyrus consists of reference tables and a collection
of 21 arithmetic and 20 algebraic problems. The second part of the Rhind
papyrus, consists of geometry problems. This final section contains more
complicated tables of data.

The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, is an ancient Egyptian

mathematical papyrus containing several problems in arithmetic, geometry, and
algebra. The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus is older than the Rhind
Mathematical Papyrus, while the latter is the larger of the two.

This papyrus is well known for its geometry problems like finding surface area
of a frustum and other very common problems. It is enlightening to know that
people who lived during that century had figured out answers for most
problems.

Egyptian hieroglyphics are in great abundance throughout Egypt. They were

essentially indecipherable until 1799 when in Alexandria the trilingual Rosetta
Stone was discovered. The Rosetta stone, an irregularly shaped tablet of black

4
basalt measuring about 3 feet 9 inches by 2 feet 4 inches, was found near the
town of Rosetta (Rashid) just a few miles northwest of Alexandria.

Written in the two languages (Greek and Egyptian) but three writing systems,
namely hieroglyphics, its cursive form demotic script, and Greek. It provided
the key toward the deciphering of hieroglyphic writing. The inscriptions on it
were the benefactions conferred by Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205 - 180 BCE) were
written by the priests of Memphis.

The translation was primarily due to Thomas Young (1773 - 1829) and Jean
Francois Champollion (1790-1832) who, very early in his life was inspired to
Egyptology by the French mathematician Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768 -
1830). Champollion completed the work begun by Young and correctly
deciphered the complete stone. An Egyptologist of the first rank, he was the
first to recognize the signs could be alphabetic, syllabic, or determinative (i.e.
standing for complete ideas) He also established the original language of the
Rosetta stone was Greek, and that the hieroglyphic text was a translation from
the Greek.

An unusual aspect of hieroglyphics is that they can be read from left to right, or
right to left, or vertically (top to bottom). The Egyptians established an annual
calendar of 12 months of 30 days each plus five feast days. Religion was a
central feature of Egyptian society. There was a preoccupation with death.
Many of Egypt’s greatest monuments were tombs constructed at great expense,
and which required detailed logistical calculations and at least basic geometry.

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NUMBER SYSTEM AND ARITHMETIC OPERATIONS

The Egyptians, like the Romans after them, expressed numbers according to
a decimal scheme, using separate symbols for 1, 10, 100, 1000, and so on. Each
symbol appeared in the expression for a number as many times as the value it
represented occurred in the number itself. For example,   stood for 24. This
rather cumbersome notation was used within the hieroglyphic writing found in
stone inscriptions and other formal texts, but in the papyrus documents the
scribes employed a more convenient abbreviated script, called hieratic writing.

In such a system, addition and subtraction amount to counting how many

symbols of each kind there are in the numerical expressions and then rewriting
with the resulting number of symbols. The texts that survive do not reveal what,
if any, special procedures the scribes used to assist in this. But
for multiplication they introduced a method of successive doubling. For
example, to multiply 28 by 11, one constructs a table of multiples of 28 like the
following:

6
 1 28
2 56
4 112
8 224
16 448

The several entries in the first column that together sum to 11 (i.e., 8, 2, and
1) are checked off. The product is then found by adding up the multiples
corresponding to these entries; thus, 224 + 56 + 28 = 308, the desired
product.

To divide 308 by 28, the Egyptians applied the same procedure in reverse.

Using the same table as in the multiplication problem, one can see that 8
produces the largest multiple of 28 that is less then 308 (for the entry at 16 is
already 448), and 8 is checked off. The process is then repeated, this time for
the remainder (84) obtained by subtracting the entry at 8 (224) from the
original number (308). This, however, is already smaller than the entry at 4,
which consequently is ignored, but it is greater than the entry at 2 (56),
which is then checked off. The process is repeated again for the remainder
obtained by subtracting 56 from the previous remainder of 84, or 28, which
also happens to exactly equal the entry at 1 and which is then checked off.
The entries that have been checked off are added up, yielding the quotient:
8 + 2 + 1 = 11.

Computations involving fractions are carried out under the restriction to unit

parts (that is, fractions that in modern notation are written with 1 as the
numerator). To express the result of dividing 4 by 7, for instance, which in
modern notation is simply 4/7, the scribe wrote 1/2 + 1/14.

7
The procedure for finding quotients in this form merely extends the usual
method for the division of integers, where one now inspects the entries for
2/3, 1/3, 1/6, etc., and 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc., until the corresponding multiples of
the divisor sum to the dividend. The scribes included 2/3, one may observe,
even though it is not a unit fraction.

In practice the procedure can sometimes become quite complicated. For

example, the value for 2/29 is given in the Rhind papyrus as 1/24 + 1/58 +
1/174 + 1/232) and can be worked out in different ways (for example, the
same 2/29 might be found as 1/15 + 1/435 or as 1/16 + 1/232 + 1/464, etc.).
A considerable portion of the papyrus texts is devoted to tables
to facilitate the finding of such unit-fraction values.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

The Ancient Egyptians took measurements in several different ways. Some

measuring sticks have actually been found in tombs. An interesting example
is for instance the measuring rod from the tomb of Maya - Tutankhamen's
treasurer - which was found in Saqqara. The rod has the divisions into
smaller units on the side.

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Records of land area also date to the Early Dynastic Period. The Palermo
stone records grants of land expressed in terms of kha and setat. Mathematical
papyri also include units of land area in their problems. For example, several
problems in the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus give the area of rectangular
plots of land in terms of setat and the ratio of the sides and then require the
scribe to solve for their exact lengths. The setat was the basic unit of land
measure and may originally have varied in size across Egypt. Later, it was equal
to one square khet, where a khet measured 100 cubits. The setat could be
divided into strips one khet long and ten cubit wide (a kha).

Weights were measured in terms of deben. This unit would have been
equivalent to 13.6 grams in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. During
the New Kingdom however it was equivalent to 91 grams. For smaller amounts
the qedet (1⁄10 of a deben) and the shematy (1⁄12 of a deben) were used. Egyptians
were the first people to figure out time and create calenders. Their units of time
were represented by different shapes.

9
PHARAOH’S TOMB

Most of the wealthiest tombs in Egypt has been safe inside pyramids.
To prevent any kind of robbery, Egyptians figured out a way that
incuded mathematics and solving of algebraic equations. Being sure
about the fact that very less people knew mathematics, made it more
secure. After the death of the most richest pharaoh of Egypt, there
was an attempt to rob the tomb. Years later archeologists came across
bits and parts of clues that might have been used to break into the
tomb. After decoding, it was quite obvious that solving mathematical
equations was a must to enter the tomb through the right path. There
are still more undiscovered sides to it.

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 GEOMETRY

Both the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

shows that the Egyptians knew how to compute areas and volumes of several
geometrical shapes. Historical texts suggest that Egyptians were familiar
with the concept of finding the area of triangles and squares. Area of a circle
was derived from these methods. A square was considered at first and then
each side of the square was trisected. These points connected (by leaving the
triangular portions at the corners) formed an octagon which was
approximated to a circle.

Thus the area of the octagonal figure is,

4∗1
92 − ∗3∗3=63
2

Now we approximate this 63 to the nearest square number 64 . We know,

64=82

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Thus the number,

()
2
8
4 =3.16049 … plays the role of π . This approximation has been considered
9

a luck by new age mathematicians while we fail to notice the sheer brilliance
of ancient Egyptian mathematicians who had much less resources to support
their results.

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 PYRAMIDS

A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to

a single step at the top. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral,
or of any polygon shape. A pyramid has at least three outer triangular
surfaces. The square pyramid, with a square base and four triangular outer
surfaces, is a common version.

SURFACE AREA AND VOLUME

 Surface area of any pyramid = area of base + area of each of the lateral
faces
 Surface area of regular pyramid = area of base + 1/2 ps where p is the
perimeter of the base and s is the slant height.
 The general formula for the lateral surface area of a regular pyramid
is, LSA = 1/2ps where p represents the perimeter of the base and s
is the slant height.
 The volume of pyramid is space occupied by it (or) it is defined as the
number of unit cubes that can be fit into it.
Volume of pyramid = 1/3 Bh where, B is the base area of the pyramid
and h is the height or altitude.

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FRUSTUM

The frustum of a pyramid is a portion of a pyramid obtained by passing a

plane parallel to the base, intersecting all the lateral edges. A frustum of a
pyramid is a polyhedron enclosed by the lateral surface and the base of the
pyramid. If the pyramid is a regular right pyramid, the frustum has congruent
isosceles trapezoids as lateral faces. A frustum of a regular pyramid has
different parts. Listed below are the different elements of a frustum of a
regular pyramid.

LSA=1/2(P1+ P 2)(l)

TSA=LSA+ B 1+B 2

V =1/3 (h)¿

SEKED
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Seked (or seqed) is an ancient Egyptian term describing the inclination of
the triangular faces of a right pyramid. The system was based on the
Egyptians' length measure known as the royal cubit. It was subdivided into
seven ‘palms’ each of which was sub-divided into four digits. The
inclination of measured slopes was therefore expressed as the number of
horizontal palms and digits relative to each royal cubit rise.

The seked is proportional to the reciprocal of our modern measure of slope

or gradient, and to the cotangent of the angle of elevation. Specifically, if s is
the seked, m the slope (rise over run), and ∅ the angle of elevation from
horizontal, then:
7
s= =7 cot ⁡(∅)
m

Information on the use of the seked in the design of pyramids has been
obtained from two mathematical papyri: the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in
the British Museum and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus in the Museum
of Fine Arts. Although there is no direct evidence of its application from the
archaeology of the Old Kingdom, there are a number of examples from the
two mathematical papyri, which date to the Middle Kingdom that show the
use of this system for defining the slopes of the sides of pyramids, based on
their height and base dimensions. The most widely quoted example is
perhaps problem 56 from the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus.

The most famous of all the pyramids of Egypt is the Great Pyramid of Giza
built around 2,550 BC. Based on the surveys of this structure that have been
carried out by Flinders Petrie and others, the slopes of the faces of this
monument were a seked of 5½, or 5 palms and 2 digits which equates to a
slope of 51.84° from the horizontal, using the modern 360° system. This
slope would probably have been accurately applied during construction by

15
 way of a frame shaped wooden tools with plumb bobs, marked to the correct
incline, so that slopes could be measured out and checked efficiently. E

There have been many different interpretations of seked. In the book

‘Mathematics in the time of the Pharaohs’ seked has been defined as the
following:

The seked of a right pyramid is the inclination of any one of the four triangular
faces to the horizontal plane of its base, and is measured as so many horizontal
units per one vertical unit rise. It is thus a measure equivalent to our modern
cotangent of the angle of slope. In general, the seked of a pyramid is a kind of
fraction, given as so many palms horizontally for each cubit of vertically, where
7 palms = 1 cubit. The Egyptian word 'seked' is thus related to our modern word
'gradient' or ‘slope’.

The abbreviation ‘tan’ is the trigonometric function of an acute

16
angle in a right triangle that is the ratio of the tan θ, which is equal in value to
the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the side
adjacent to the angle. Ancient Egyptians used the tangent angle by identifying it
as a Seqed.

TRIANGULATION

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Triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by
forming triangles to the point from known points. Triangulation today is used
for many purposes like, surveying, navigation, metrology, astrometry, binocular
vision, model rocketry and, in the military, the gun direction, the trajectory and

distribution of fire power of weapons.

The use of triangles to estimate distances dates to antiquity. In the 6th century
BC, about 250 years prior to the establishment of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the
Greek philosopher Thales is recorded as using similar triangles to estimate the
height of the pyramids of ancient Egypt. He measured the length of the
pyramids' shadows and that of his own at the same moment, and compared the
ratios to his height (intercept theorem). Thales also estimated the distances to
ships at sea as seen from a cliff top by measuring the horizontal distance
traversed by the line-of-sight for a known fall, and scaling up to the height of
the whole cliff. Such techniques would have been familiar to the ancient
Egyptians. 

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 PYRAMIDOLOGY, IRRATIONAL NUMBERS AND
PYTHAGOREAN TRIANGLES

Pyramid theorists, obsessed by dimensions of the Great Pyramid have been

led to claim that the ancient Egyptians had some esoteric and remarkably
accurate knowledge of the irrational numbers ∅ and π (the ratio 1 :∅ being the
so-called “golden section” or “divine proportion”) which they encapsulated
in their architecture. Herodotus II, a historian seems to say that the height of
the Great Pyramid is equal to the length of each side of the square base, but
it has been alleged that the text is corrupt and should equate the square of the
height to the area of each face. Such conditions are met if and only if the
height is equal to

√ ∅ * (half the width of the base)

If the half-width of the base is taken as 1, then a height of √ ∅ gives a value

∅ for the apothem of the face, that is, the distance from the apex to the

midpoint of the side of the base. The area of the face is ∅ , which is equal to
the square of the height.

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A pyramid with the proportions given by Herodotus as interpreted by
pyramid numerologists would have a seked,

7 ÷ √ ∅=5.503 palms

Which in turn gives,

1
∅= (1+ √ 5)
2

We thus obtain the value 1.618 correct to three decimal places. From a
1
practical point of view this does not differ from the seked of 5 2 palms

which, beyond reasonable doubt, was what the builders intended.

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 INCLINED SURFACES AND THE ROYAL CUBIT

We know from the pyramid exercises in the Rhind mathematical papyrus

that the ancient Egyptians used a simple trigonometry for determining
architectural inclinations whereby the horizontal displacement was measured
in linear units called palms for a vertical drop of a royal cubit consisting of 7
palms. The palm was approximately a hand’s breadth, and in a well-built
man of those times the distance from the elbow bone to the fingertips was 6
palms. This distance, the so-called small cubit, was one which it was
convenient to use for everyday measurements. The architectural royal cubit,
which was marked out on measuring rods, was longer by 1 palm. The
metrical unit of inclination was the seked. In contrast with the modern
concept of the gradient of a straight line, the seked indicated the degree of
flatness rather than the steepness of the incline, since it depended on the
cotangent rather than the tangent of the angle made by the plane surface with
the horizontal. Thus, the steeper the incline, the smaller the seked value. The
inclinations of the faces of surviving pyramids have been measured at
various times by standard surveying methods, and the results for the angle
made with the horizontal have usually been given in degrees, minutes, and
seconds. Lauer is exceptional in having used ratios related to Egyptian
metrical units. The standard text on the pyramids of Egypt is Edwards
provide a convenient and comprehensive list of pyramidal inclinations in
modern units. In some cases, but not all, the values that they give when
converted into the Egyptian equivalent yield simple fractions of a seked.

For instance, seked values for the two larger Giza pyramids pyramid of
differed from the accepted values by less than 0.1%. In all surviving
pyramids in which the state of preservation was good enough to make

21
measurement possible, we found that the seked could be expressed as a
whole number of palms, or as a whole number of palms plus a quarter, half,
1
or three-quarters of a palm. The commonest values for the seked were 5 2

palms.

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 WORKED OUT PROBLEMS

1. 700 loaves are to be divided among recipients where the amounts they
are to receive are in the continued proportion,
2 1 1 1
: : :
3 2 3 4

Ans. Adding,

2 1 1 1 7
+ + + =
3 2 3 4 4

700
7/4
=700
4
7 ()
¿ 700 ( 27 + 72 )
¿ 700 ( 27 + 71 + 282 + 141 )
¿ 700 ( 12 + 141 )
¿ 350+50=400

The first value is 400. This is the base number. Now multiply each
fraction by 400 to obtain the recipient’s amount. Note the algorithm
nature of this solution. It reveals no principles at all. Only when
converting to modern notation and using modern symbols do we see that
this is correct.

2. Divide 329 by 12 using Egyptian mathematics.

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 1 12
2 24
4 48
8 96
16 192
32 384

329−192=137 and then finding the next smaller number then 137 we

find, 96 . So ( 137−96 ) =41. The next smaller number is 24 and hence

( 41−24 )=17. Finally subtracting 12 from 17 we get 5.

329= (12 ×1 ) + ( 12 ×2 ) + ( 12 ×4 ) + ( 12 ×8 ) + ( 12 ×16 ) +5

329= (1+ 2+ 4+ 8+16 ) ×12+5

5 1 1
329=27 =27+ +
12 3 12

TRACING BACK TO THE ROOTS

24
Until the 1920s it was commonly supposed that mathematics had its birth
among the ancient Greeks. What was known of earlier traditions, such as the
Egyptian as represented by the Rhind papyrus, offered at best a meagre
precedent. This impression gave way to a very different view as historians
succeeded in deciphering and interpreting the technical materials from
ancient Mesopotamia. Unlike the Egyptians, the mathematicians of the Old
Babylonian period went far beyond the immediate challenges of their official
accounting duties.

For example, they introduced a versatile numeral system, which like the
modern system, exploited the notion of place value, and they developed
computational methods that took advantage of this means of expressing
numbers. They solved linear and quadratic problems by methods much like
those now used in algebra. Their success with the study of what are now
called Pythagorean number triples was a remarkable feat in number theory.
The scribes who made such discoveries must have believed mathematics to
be worthy of study in its own right, not just as a practical tool.

25
The older Sumerian system of numerals followed an additive decimal (base-
10) principle similar to that of the Egyptians. But the Old Babylonian system
converted this into a place-value system with the base of 60 (sexagesimal).
The reasons for the choice of 60 are obscure, but one good mathematical
reason might have been the existence of so many divisors (2, 3, 4, and 5, and
some multiples) of the base, which would have greatly facilitated the
operation of division.

By the 3rd century BCE, the Babylonians appear to have developed a

placeholder symbol that functioned as a zero, but its precise meaning and use
is still uncertain. Furthermore, they had no mark to separate numbers
into integral and fractional parts. The four arithmetic operations were
performed in the same way as in the modern decimal system, except that
carrying occurred whenever a sum reached 60 rather than 10. 

Multiplication was facilitated by means of tables; one typical tablet lists the

multiples of a number by 1, 2, 3,…, 19, 20, 30, 40, and 50. To multiply two
numbers several places long, the scribe first broke the problem down into
several multiplications, each by a one-place number, and then looked up the
value of each product in the appropriate tables. He found the answer to the
problem by adding up these intermediate results. These tables also assisted in
division, for the values that head them were all reciprocals of regular
numbers.

Regular numbers are those whose prime factors divide the base; the
reciprocals of such numbers thus have only a finite number of places. In base
10, for example, only numbers with factors of 2 and 5 are regular, and the
reciprocals have finite expressions. But the reciprocals of other numbers
repeat infinitely.

26
Babylonians were aware of the relation between the hypotenuse and the two
legs of a right triangle (now commonly known as the Pythagorean theorem)
more than a thousand years before the Greeks used it. Although these
Babylonian quadratic procedures have often been described as the earliest
appearance of algebra, there are important distinctions. The scribes lacked an
algebraic symbolism. They must certainly have understood that their solution
procedures were general but they always presented them in terms of
particular cases, rather than as the working through of general formulas and
identities. They thus lacked the means for presenting general derivations and
proofs of their solution procedures.

As mentioned above, the Babylonian scribes knew that the base (b), height
(h), and diagonal (d) of a rectangle satisfy the relation b 2+ h2=d 2. If one
selects values at random for two of the terms, the third will usually
be irrational, but it is possible to find cases in which all three terms are
integers: for example, 3, 4, 5 and 5, 12, 13.

The sexagesimal method developed by the Babylonians has a far greater

computational potential than what was actually needed for the older problem
texts. With the development of mathematical astronomy in the Seleucid
period, however, it became indispensable. Astronomers sought to predict
future occurrences of important phenomena, such as lunar eclipses and
critical points in planetary cycles (conjunctions, oppositions, stationary
points, and first and last visibility). They devised a technique for computing
these positions (expressed in terms of degrees of latitude and longitude,
measured relative to the path of the Sun’s apparent annual motion) by
successively adding appropriate terms in arithmetic progression.

Within a relatively short time (perhaps a century or less), the elements of this
system came into the hands of the Greeks. Although Hipparchus (2nd
century BCE) favoured the geometric approach of his Greek predecessors,

27
he took over parameters from the Mesopotamians and adopted their
sexagesimal style of computation. Through the Greeks it passed to Arab
scientists during the Middle Ages and thence to Europe, where it remained
prominent in mathematical astronomy during the Renaissance and the early
modern period. To this day it persists in the use of minutes and seconds to
measure time and angles.

28
 CONCLUSION

Mathematical methods were derived from practical needs. It was used for
land measurement, Construction of Pyramids, temples, storage facilities and
irrigation systems and basic accounting. The used methods were written
down as handling instructions with practical examples without justification
or proof. All in all, Maths wasn’t as abstract as it is now. Also the concept of
mathematical proofs hadn’t evolved. The context of the mathematical texts
in each culture was that of education, more precisely education of scribes
who would need mathematical abilities in their daily work when
administering all kinds of goods.

It has evolved from simple counting, measurement and calculation, and the
systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects, through the
application of abstraction, imagination and logic, to the broad, complex and
often abstract discipline we know today.

From the notched bones of early man to the mathematical advances brought
about by settled agriculture in Mesopotamia and Egypt and the revolutionary
developments of ancient Greece and its Hellenistic empire, the story of
mathematics is a long and impressive one.

To the extent that Egyptian mathematics left a legacy after all, it was through
its impact on the emerging Greek mathematical tradition between the 6th and
4th centuries BCE. Because the documentation from this period is limited,
the manner and significance of the influence can only be conjectured. But
the report about Thales measuring the height of pyramids is only one of
several such accounts of Greek intellectuals learning from Egyptians.
Herodotus and Plato has describe with approval of Egyptian practices in the

29
teaching and application of mathematics. This literary evidence has historical
support, since the Greeks maintained continuous trade and military
operations in Egypt from the 7th century BCE onward. It is thus plausible
that basic precedents for the Greeks’ earliest mathematical efforts, like how
they dealt with fractional parts or measured areas and volumes, or their use
of ratios in connection with similar figures, came from the learning of the
ancient Egyptian scribes.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus

 https://www.britannica.com/science/mathematics/Mathematics-

in-ancient-Egypt

 https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/The-math-mystery-of-the-

Egyptian-pyramids.pdf

 https://reader.elsevier.com/reader

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