ABSTRACT

The system of ancient Egyptian numerals was

used in Ancient Egypt from around 3000 BC
until the early first millennium AD. It was a
system of numeration based on multiples of ten,
often rounded off to the higher power, written in
hieroglyphs.

KEITH WILLIAM WIDJAJA

Grade 4 Faith

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN NUMBERS

Ancient Egyptian Numbers

The symbol for one may come from a finger. Everyone starts off
1
counting on their fingers!

The symbols get more complicated as the numbers get bigger.

10
The symbol for ten is a piece of rope.

100 The symbol for a hundred is a coil of rope.

The symbol for a thousand is the lotus or water lily. It shows the
1,000 leaf, stem and rhizome or root. It seems odd not to show the
flower, but you can eat the root.

The symbol for ten thousand is a single, large finger. Perhaps it is

10,000
a finger ten thousand times as big as the symbol for one!

The symbol for a hundred thousand is a tadpole. It seems to be

nearly turning into a frog. If you want to know why this is the
100,000
symbol for such a large number, imagine a pool full of frog spawn
all turning into tiny frogs.

The symbol for a million is a god called Heh. It also means just a
1,000,000 very large number, like 'squillion'. I think it looks like a fisherman
describing how big was the fish that got away - "It was enormous!"

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Egyptian Multiplication and Division

Multiplication
In the 1850s, a Scottsman named A. H. Rhind purchased a papyrus of Egyptian
mathematics and a leather roll. The papyrus is collection of completed math problems and is
called the Rhind Papyrus or the Ahmes Papyrus. Ahmes was the scribe who in 1650 BCE
copied the math from a much older document. The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll
(EMLR) contains methods for simplifying a series (a sum) of unit fractions to a single unit
fraction. Much of the Rhind Papyrus deals with fraction computation, area problems, and
"solving equations" -- finding the value of a heap.
The multiplication method is sometimes called doubling and halving or called Russian
peasant multiplication. In modern terms it employs the decomposition of one number into its
binary components, addition to produce "doubles" or multiples of the other number, and
computing a total of doubles identified by odd divisors or the powers of two. Ancient
Egyptians did not use this vocabulary and neither need you, but, the method will is examined
below using a modern version of the algroithm and examples.
We have to memorize multiplication tables. Egyptian did not.
• Unique method which they correctly viewed as repeated addition.
• Based on doubling and is also known as the didactic method.
• Starting with one and doubling, they obtained a never-ending sequence of numbers: 1, 2,
4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, ...
• These numbers are the powers of two: 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 2 4 , 25 , 26 , 27 , …
• Egyptians figured out is that any integer can be written as a sum of the powers of two
without repeating any of them
• For example,
• 11 = 8 + 2 + 1 Try 23, 44 and 158
• 23 = 16 + 4 + 2 + 1
• 44 = 32 + 8 + 4
• 158 = 128 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2
• Suppose we want to multiply 12 x 17.
• Start with 1 and 17.
• Keep doubling both numbers until the right side gets as close as possible to, but not larger
than 12.

Here, in actual figures, is how 238 is multiplied by 13. The lines are multiplied by two, from
one to the next. A check mark is placed by the powers of two in the decomposition of 238.

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Division
Division may be completed by repeated subtraction. The following algorithm will also
complete division. It may be difficult to find the sum of "doubles."
To divide:
1st: Use two side-by-side columns of numbers. The left column will contain powers of two
(and eventually the quotient). The right column will contain multiples of the divisor. Additional
columns of checks or marks and of identified "doubles" may be placed as desired by the
scribe.
2nd: Begin at the top of the left column and fill the column in order with the powers of two
until you have reached the dividend.
3rd: On the top row of the right column place the divisor.
4th: Create the remaining entries in the right column by doubling the number in the row
above it. Stop when the "double" is as large as the dividend.
5th: This is the tough task. Find and check or mark "doubles" in the right column so that
their sum is the dividend.
6th: The sum of the indicated left-column powers of two is the quotient.

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