How Did Ancient Egyptians Use Math

In the ancient times, Egypt was a very large, complex nation. The ancient Egyptians did many things, but did they use Math? There are several evidences that the Egyptians, indeed used mathematics. Most of our knowledge of Egyptian math comes from two mathematical papyri:
The Rhind Papyrus, and the Moscow Papyrus. These documents contain many ancient Egyptian math problems. We also know the Egyptians used math just by looking at their architecture! The Great
Pyramid at Giza is an incredible feat of engineering. This gives us one clear indication that the society had reached a high level of achievement. Another indicator is that early hieroglyphic numerals can be found on temples, stone monuments and vases.
Beginning with the basics,
here is how the Egyptians used math:
Number System:
The Egyptians had a base 10 system of hieroglyphs for numerals.
This means that they had separate symbols for one unit, one ten, one hundred, one thousand, one ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million.
For example, to make up the number 159, fifteen symbols are required:1 "hundred" symbol, 5 "ten" symbols, and 9 "unit" symbols.
Over time the Egyptians came up with another form of numbers. These numbers were called “hieratic numerals”. These numerals were much more detailed, but more memorization was needed to remember all the symbols.
The Hieratic Numerals included the numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,80, 90, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000 With this system, only a few symbols were needed to form large numbers. For example, the number 777 only uses 3 hieratic symbols, instead of 21 hieroglyphs.
Adding and Subtracting:
Adding and subtracting was a very simple process. All you would do was take the two numbers you were adding together and put the same symbols into the same group. For example, say that P stands for 1, and M stands for 10. All you need to do is add the numbers 15 and 27 together.
PPPPP M =
15
PPPPPPP MM=27
To add those together we simply combine them. PPPPPPPPPPPP MMM= PP MMMM (42)
The same process is used for subtraction.
Multiplication:
To multiply 2 numbers of any size, all you need to know is how to add. To multiply 2 numbers you would write them in a column form. Let’s multiply 36 and 21.
We write the equation like this:
36 x 21
Below the two numbers each make 2 columns. The first column always begins with the number 1, and each number in that column doubles each time you write it. so your first column would look like this:
36 x
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
For the 2nd column, under the 21, begin with the number you are multiplying, and double that number each line.
21
21
42
84
168
336
672
1344
2688
In the end you should have two columns that look like this: 36 x 21
1 21
2 42
4 84
8 168
16 336
32 672
64 1344
128 2688
You then take numbers from the first column that will add up to 36: 32+4 = 36
Next plug in the corresponding numbers in the 2nd column to the equation that makes up the first number (in this example the number is 36). For example, the corresponding number to the number 2 is 42.
The number across from the number 32 is 672, and the number across from the number 4 is 84. All I have to do is add those 2 numbers together:
672+84= 756 36x21=756
And there is your answer!
Division is a reversal of the multiplication process:
300/25
1. 25
2. 50
4. 100
8. 200
16. 400
32. 800
64. 1600
200 + 100 = 300
Match the corresponding numbers: 8+4 = 12
The answer is 12.
These multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction methods are all found on the Rhind and Moscow papyrus. What are these Papyri? They are ancient documents from around 2000 BC that have many advanced math formulas and problems on them.
The Rhind Papyrus:
The Rhind Papyrus is named after the British collector, Alexander Rhind, who found it in 1858. The Rhind Papyrus is located in the British Museum, and contains mathematics problems and solutions. There are 84 math problems including simple equations, geometric series & simultaneous equations, determining, geometric series, and simple algebra found on the papyrus.
The Moscow Papyrus:
In the 19th century, an Egyptologist- Vladimir Golenishchev, found the papyrus and brought it to Russia. The Moscow papyrus contains only about 25 math problems. Of the 25 math problems, 7 of them are geometry. The papyrus is now located in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow
The Ancient Egyptians obviously had a very good understanding of mathematics. They looked for patterns and found ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide. They came up with many formulas and tricks they helped their societies become more advanced. They have contributed much to our modern math world. So, the lesson to learn from this? Don’t underestimate math. Math is in
everything!