Mathematics in Ancient Egypt

choi

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Pam Belluck, Math Puzzles’ Oldest Ancestors Took Form on Egyptian Papyrus. New York Times, Dec. 7, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07first.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=papyrus&st=cse

My comment:
(a) As I was going to St Ives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_I_was_going_to_St_Ives

Quote:

"The earliest known published version of it comes from a manuscript dated to around 1730 (but it differs in referring to 'nine' rather than 'seven' wives). The modern form was first printed around 1825. A similar problem appears in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Problem 79), dated to around 1650 BC.

"There are a number of places called St Ives in England and elsewhere. It is generally thought that the rhyme refers to St Ives, Cornwall
(b)
(i) St Ia's Church, St Ives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ia's_Church,_St_Ives
(The church is dedicated to Saint Ia the Virgin, also known as Ives)

(ii) History of St Ives. St Ives, Cornwall.
http://www.stives-cornwall.co.uk/history-of-st-ives.html

Start from Paragraph 4.
(iii) See the map in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ives,_Cornwall
(c) Rhind Mathematical Papyrus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhind_Mathematical_Papyrus
(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; dates to around 1650 BC; The British Museum, where the papyrus is now kept, acquired it in 1864 along with the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, also owned by Henry Rhind; It is one of the two well-known Mathematical Papyri along with the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus)
(d) The English noun papurus" is actually Latin (which in turn came from Greek papyros), with plural form papyri or papyruses (the former is plural form in Latin, whereas the latter, in English). The English noun paper came from papyrus.
(e) I can not find a photograph of Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll or of Akhmim Wooden Tablets.

Akhmim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhmim
(modern name of a city)
(f)
(i) Eye of Horus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus

Check out section 3 In arithmetic, especially the panel in the lower left corner.
(ii) Horus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus

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