Ancient Egyptian mathematics

Ancient Egyptian mathematics is the mathematics used in Ancient Egypt from about 3000 BCE to 300 BCE. This was from the time of the Old Kingdom of Egypt to the start of Hellenistic Egypt. The Egyptians made a system of numbers to count and solve problems. They often worked with multiplication and fractions.

We learn about their math from a few surviving sources written on papyrus. These show that they understood geometry, like how to find the surface area and volume of shapes. This helped them with architectural engineering. They also knew about algebra, with ways to solve problems such as the false position method and quadratic equations.

Overview

Written evidence of mathematics in Ancient Egypt dates back to around 3200 BC with ivory labels found in Tomb U-j at Abydos. These labels were used as tags for grave goods and some had numbers on them. We also see evidence of a base 10 number system on the Narmer Macehead, which shows huge offerings like 400,000 oxen.

The earliest true math documents come from around 1990–1800 BC during the 12th Dynasty. Important texts like the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus contain problems and solutions. One special thing about Ancient Egyptian math is how they used unit fractions, writing most fractions as sums of fractions like 1/2 or 1/3, using tables to help with these calculations.