Chapter 1 - History of Counting

1. Counting by words
Australian Aboriginals - one, two, many
2. Counting by grouping
3. Counting by objects
4. Counting by tallying: marks on stones, wood, bones etc.
Early as 30,000 B.C.
Tally marks in shinbone of a wolf - Czechoslovakia in 1937
Used to record
dates – recorded in bones found in a French cave.
animals hunted
Counting votes in elections.
Statistical frequency counting.
5. Counting symbols

Chapter 2 – Mathematics in Early Civilizations

2.1 Egyptian Civilizations

Geometry emerged as a required field because the measurement of land was needed
due to the change of land caused by the Nile River flooding.

Hieroglyphs: picture drawings of objects representing words, syllables, sounds or

numbers.

Rosetta stones - important for deciphering hieroglyphics (stones containing hieroglyphs).

and demotic scripts ( Egyptian Language)
Mathematics (Arithmetic) found in Papyrus (writing on Scrolls of paper or animal skin leather)

Two known tablets are

the Rhind Papyrus. (Found by Scottish man Henry Rhind in 1858 AD.
Now in the British Museum)
the Moscow Papyrus (Found by Golenischev. Now in a museum in Moscow)

The Rhind Papyrus contains hieratic scripts. (Can be easily written by pen)
Written by Ahmes about 1650 B.C.

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Figure 1: Demotic Scripts in Rosetta Stone.

Figure 2: Part of the Rhind Papyrus

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2.2 Egyptian Arithmetic
The Rhind Papyrus contains information on how to multiply and divide numbers.
There are also 85 problems in the Papyrus.

Egyptian hieratic symbols for numbers

=1 =10 =102=100 =103

=104 =10000 =105 =106 =107

The symbol is used for the equal ‘=’ symbol.

In Chapter 1.
Ex 2.1 Problem 1(a-d), 2(a,d), 3(a,c) in Section 1.2.

Multiplication by doubling and summing

Example Multiply 35 b 11.

In Egyptian symbols.

------------- ------------------------------------------------

Hence the multiplication of 11 × 35 is 385.

Ex 2.2 Problem 1(a) , 2(a), 4(c), 5 in Section 1.3

Unit fraction

3
 1
Unit fractions are of the form 𝑛
.
For example
1 1 1
, , ,…
2 3 4
Egyptians used only unit fractions in multiplications and divisions.

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Any other fractions (for example 7 ) were expressed in terms of the unit fractions.
For example,
6 1 1 1 1
= + + + .
7 2 4 14 28
They did not use the simple sum
6 1 1 1 1 1 1
= + + + + + .
7 7 7 7 7 7 7
2
The Rhind Papyrus contains a table of decomposition of fractions of form 𝑛 by unit fractions,
where 𝑛 is odd from 5 to 101.
(see Text Book, page 40)

2 2 1 1
Fractions of the form 3𝑘
are decomposed simply as 3𝑘 = 2𝑘 + 6𝑘.

Decomposition for other types of fractions is obtained using this.

6
For example, to decompose 7,
from the table, we have
6 2 1 1 3 3 1 1 1 1
= 3( ) = 3( + ) = + = + + + .
7 7 4 28 4 28 2 4 14 28

Division by doubling and summing

Egyptians used the doubling and summing method for the division also.

Example 1:
Divide 2340 by 45.
Answer by doubling and summing
1. Form the doubling table for the divisor 45.

2. Select the row on the right side to sum to 2340.

3. Sum the corresponding rows from the left side

1 45
2 90
4 180 √
8 360
16 720 √
32 1440 √ (next doubling is more than 2340. So, stop)
---------------------------------
52 2340
Hence the answer is 52.

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Example 2: Division with fractional answer.

Divide 315 by 17
1. Form the doubling table with divisor 17
2. Select the row on the right side to sum to be close to 315
3. Get the remainder 315 – 306 = 9
4 Form the doubling table for 9 with right to left with fractions with denominator 17.
5. Decompose the fractions into unit fractions (written on the rightmost column)

1 17
2 34 √
4 68
8 136
16 272 √
-----------------------------
306
-----------------------------
1 1
17
1 17
2 1 1 1
17
2 12
+ 51 + 68 (from table)
4 1 1 1
17
4 6
+ 17 + 102 (Exercise)
8 1 1 1 1 1
17
8 3
+ 12 + 34 + 68 + 102 (Exercise)
16
16 (Ex)
17

2.3 Problems from Rhind Papyrus

Problem 1: (Problem 22 in Rhind Papyrus)

Given a fraction (in unit fractions), find a fraction to be added to get one.

Problem 2: (Problem 24 in Rhind Papyrus)

A quantity and its 1/7 added become 19. What is the quantity?

Use the method of false position.

𝑥
Solve 𝑥 + 7 = 19.

Assume 𝑥 = 7.
7
So, 7 + 7 = 8.
19
To get 19, we need to multiply 8 by 8
. So, the correct answer is
19 1 1 1 1
𝑥 =7× = 7 (2 + + ) = 16 + + ( Ex)
8 4 8 2 8

Problem 3: (Problem 28 in Rhind Papyrus)

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 2 1
Think of a number, and add 3 of this number to itself. From this sum subtract 3 its value and say what
your answer is.
Answer:
1
Suppose the answer was 10. Then, take away 10 of this 10, giving 9. Then this was the number first
thought of.
(How did they get this???)

Ex 2.3 Problems 1(a,d), 2(c—e), 3(a,b), 4(a), 5, 6, 22 in Section 2.3

2.4 Egyptian Geometry

The subject of Geometry as a ‘measurement of earth land’ came as a necessity to yearly land survey due
to flooding if Nile River.

Area of a quadrilateral

The area of a quadrilateral with side 𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, 𝑑 is considered as

1
(𝑎 + 𝑐)(𝑏 + 𝑑)
4
Here, 𝑎, 𝑐 are opposite sides and so are 𝑏, 𝑑.

This is an incorrect formula for any quadrilateral.

Babylonians also used it 3000 years earlier. (Interesting!!)

The Rhind papyrus has geometric problems from 41-60.

Mainly about storing grain in rectangular or circular granaries.

Area of circle

Problem 50 describes the area of a circle:

Example of a round field of a diameter 9 khet. What is its area?

Answer:
1
Take away 9 of the diameter, namely 1; the remainder is 8. Multiply 8 times 8; it makes 64. Therefore it
contains 64 setat of land.

In our expression, it means

8𝑑 2
𝐴=( ) .
9
where 𝑑 is the diameter.

(How did they get that??)

Question: According to this formula, what is the value of ?

Area of a trapezoid

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Problem 52 describes the area of a trapezoid

The area of a trapezoid with lengths of parallel sides 𝑏 and 𝑏′ and slanted side ℎ is
1
𝐴 = (𝑏 + 𝑏 ′ )ℎ.
2

Note: If ℎ is the height, the formula is correct.

Volume of a truncated Pyramid (Frustum)

In the Moscow papyrus, problem 25 gives the volume of a frustum as

ℎ
𝑉 = (𝑎2 + 𝑎𝑏 + 𝑏 2 ).
3
where 𝑎 and 𝑏 are the sides of the square base and top respectively.

This is a correct formula. (How??)

Greatness of Pyramids

All pyramids have a square base with side 𝑎 (say). The height of the pyramid is (say) ℎ.

Interestingly, we note that

2𝑎
≈ 𝜋.
ℎ
For example, the greatest pyramid
has 𝑎 = 755.78 foot. ℎ = 481.2 foot

2𝑎 2(755.78)
= = 3.14123.
ℎ 481.2
The difference to 𝜋 is 𝜋 − 3.14123 = 0.00036.

Ex 2.4 Problem 1(a-c), 2(a, b), 5, 9(a,b) in Section 2.4.

2.5 Babylonian mathematics

Babylonian writings are found in clay tablets called cuneiform tablets.

Cuneiform - wedge-shaped symbols.

The numbers were expressed in base 60.

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1. There were only two symbols ‘V’ for one and ‘<’ for 10.
2. There are repeated to form other numbers up to 59.
3. Higher numbers are with base 60 and put a groups in next places.

For example, the number

1,57,46,40 = 40 + 46 ⋅ 60 + 57 ⋅ 602 + 1 ⋅ 603 = 424000.

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They did not have any special symbols to separate integers from fractions.

We use a semicolon (;) to separate fractions.

Thus,
21 7
2, 3; 21 = 2 ⋅ 60 + 3 + = 123 .
60 30
3 30 7
25, 0; 3, 30 = 25 ⋅ 60 + 0 + + 2 = 1500 .
60 60 120

Tables of formulas

Babylonians used various tables of formulas for solving problems.

3
Tables squares (𝑛2 ), cubes (𝑛3 ) , square roots (√𝑛), cube roots ( √𝑛).

There is also a table for 𝑛2 + 𝑛3 .

These were used to solve cubic equations like 𝑥 3 + 𝑥 2 = 𝐶.

Table of reciprocals
𝑛
Another table for sexagesimal reciprocals ( ).
60
(See table in page 63 of the textbook)

1
Ex 1: What would be the sexagesimal reciprocal of
21
1
Ex 2: What would be the sexagesimal reciprocal of 7
.

Ex 3. Multiply 345 × 65 in sexagesimal system.

Ex 4. Divide 345 by 7 in sexagesimal system.

Quadratic equation

Babylonians have some methods similar to ours for solving quadratic equations.
Consider the problem found in one of the cuneiform tablets.

I have added the area and two-thirds of the side of my square and it is 0;35. What is the side of my
square?

In modern notations, let 𝑥 be the length of a side of the square. The, we have the quadratic equation
2𝑥 35
𝑥2 + = .
3 60

The solution of the problem is described in the tablet as follows:

You take 1, the coefficient [of x]. Two-thirds of 1 is 0;40. Half of this, 0;20, you multiply
by 0;20, and it [the result] 0;6,40 you add to 0;35 and [the result] 0;41,40 has 0;50 as its
square root. The 0;20, which you have multiplied by itself, you subtract from 0;50, and 0;30
is [the side of] the square.

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Another tablet has the following problem, in our nations,

𝑥𝑦 = 600, (𝑥 + 𝑦)2 + 120(𝑥 − 𝑦) = 3700.

Another tablet, now in Yale University has problems of the type

1
𝑥𝑦 = 600, 2
(𝑥 + 𝑦)2 − 60(𝑥 − 𝑦) = −10. (minus 10??)

I have a reed. I do know not its dimension. I broke off from it one cubit and walked 60 times along the
length. I restored to it what I had broken off, then walked 30 times along the width. The area is 6,15.
What is the original length of the reed?

2.6 Plympton 322

The Plympton 322 is one of the tablets in the Columbia University (discovered by G.A. Plympton)

This contains the Pythagorean triplets. That is, integers 𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧 such that 𝑥 2 + 𝑦 2 = 𝑧 2 .

It has 𝑧 and 𝑥 so that 𝑧 2 − 𝑥 2 = 𝑦 2 .

Use of Pythagorean Theorem.

One tablet found in Susa by a French archeologist in 1936 has the problem

Compute the radius of a circle that circumscribes an isosceles triangle of sides 50, 50 and 60.

Cairo Mathematical Papyrus

The Cairo Mathematical Papyrus tells us that the Egyptians knew the Pythagorean triplets for right
triangles (3,4,5), (5,12,13), (20,21,29).

One problem is

A ladder of 10 cubits has its foot 6 cubits from a wall; to what height will it reach?”

Another problem is to
find the length of the sides of the rectangles whose area is 60 and the diagonals for each are 13 and 15.

Archimedes’ formula for square root.

Babylonians have a geometric interpretation for Archimedes’ formula for square root, namely,

𝑏
√𝑁 = √𝑎2 + 𝑏 ≈ 𝑎 + .
2𝑎

Ex 2.5 1(a,b), 3, 4 in Section 2.5

Ex 2.6 1(a,b), 2, 7 in Section 2.6

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