Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

Rhind Mathematical Papyrus

Rhind papyrus, ancient Egyptian scroll bearing mathematical tables and problems. This extensive document from ancient Egypt has been the source of much information about Egyptian mathematics. The papyrus was bought in 1858 in a Nile resort town by a Scottish antiquary, Alexander Henry Rhind, hence its name; less frequently, it is called the Ahmes papyrus in honour of the scribe who copied it about 1650 BC.

The Rhind Papyrus covers Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and division. The foundation of ancient Egyptian mathematical science. Alexander Henry Rhind purchased Luxor in 1858. The fugitive appeared in the Ramesseum excavations.

The Rhind Papyrus is the first known mathematical document. It was discovered in 1858 by the Scottish antiquarian Alexander Henry Rhind at Thebes, near Ramesseum on the River Nile, and took its name from the antiquarian's surname. Scribe Ahmes (M.He. The papyrus, written by 1680-1620), is 6 meters long and 35 cm wide. It has been on display in the British Museum since 1868.

The papyrus is currently on display at the British Museum.

In its content, fractional numbers, Sharing Account, Interest Account, field account, as well as topics such as 60 min., 24 hours a day and 360 degrees of the circle, the number of pi, 2/3 rule and the basic information of Pythagorean theorem, such as many important mathematical information.

Unit fractions, linear equations and their solutions, triangle, quadrilateral, trapezoid, fields of parallelogram, first step to trigonometry, area of the circle, similar triangles are other topics included in its content.

The Rhind Papyrus is like a handbook of Applied Mathematics, because it contains 85 problems on how to perform multiplication and division operations, equation solutions, and daily practical mathematical calculations, and allows us to gain knowledge against Egyptian mathematics.

Overview Of The Multiplication Process While the Egyptians easily performed addition and subtraction operations with the known method, they used iterative addition in essence for multiplication and division operations. That is, for multiplying two numbers, they obtained a new number by doubling one of the numbers repeatedly, and they found the result by adding between these numbers and the appropriate ones.

How Is Division Performed?In the ancient Egyptians, the division process is similar, which occurs by taking the sum of two times the divisor in repetitive form to find the divisor-that is, by performing the opposite multiplication process. For example, let's divide the number 91 by 7. In fact, we want to find the number X in the equation 7x = 91. in order to obtain the number x, it is aimed to obtain the number 91 by taking 2 times repeated 7.

given that Ahmes, who wrote the apyrus, acted according to some principles, the following situations may have occurred in the writing of this papyrus: Small denominators not greater than 1000 were preferred. The fewer unit fractions are used, the better, provided that the number does not exceed four. Especially for the first term, unit fractions whose denominator is an even number were more preferred than odd ones. A fraction with a small denominator must be written first, and the same fraction cannot be written twice. If the denominator of the fraction written at first becomes smaller, the denominator of other fractions can be increased.