Les mathematiques de l’Egypte ancienne

What do the scribes’ texts teach us about mathematics? What are the particularities of “their” mathematics? The numerous problems and passages studied come under the basic mathematical corpus of the Middle Kingdom, but they also come from administrative records and more recent documents such as the Demotic papyri. What we learn from

What do the scribes’ texts teach us about mathematics? What are the particularities of “their” mathematics? The numerous problems and passages studied come under the basic mathematical corpus of the Middle Kingdom, but they also come from administrative records and more recent documents such as the Demotic papyri. What we learn from those texts sometimes goes beyond pure mathematics, as they provide some information about the product or service market value, the amounts of some salaries or taxes, the estimates on a construction site, the building of architectural elements, the management of harvests and livestock or the brewing of beer. This book has not only a scientific, but also an educational purpose. Most Egyptian texts come with a hieratic copy and a hieroglyphic transcription and they are illustrated with many drawings. Throughout the chapters, the reader will discover: a new cartography of the Rhind Papyrus, an overview of the hieratic writing, an explanation of the fundamental operations (on number and fractions) and a statement on the systems of quantities used (metrology). The arithmetic problems deal with: the calculation of unknown quantities, the calculation of square roots, arithmetic progressions. The geometry problems include: area calculations, volume calculations and slope calculations. Moreover, a glossary of mathematical terms can be found in the annexes.

• By (author) Marianne Michel