History of

Mathematics
Math 112
Divine Grace Dayaganon
Ancient Egypt

01 02
Number System Multiplication
Dating some 5,000 years Uses only the ability to
ago; was based on the 10 multiply and divide by 2,
scale. and to add .

03 04
Division Unit Fractions
Egyptians applied the same Egyptians expressed their
procedure when multiplying fractions as sums of unit
but in reverse. fractions.
Introduction
Earliest History of Ancient
Egyptian Mathematics
Introduction
From around 3000 BC, The Egyptians had a writing
system that was based on hieroglyphics, Hieroglyphs are
little pictures representing words or numbers. The
Egyptians had a base 10 system of hieroglyphs for
numerals.
 A child prodigy
who deciphered
Egyptian Hierogylphs
A man working with multilingual tablets and
was able to slowly translate a number of
hieroglyphs.

Jean-François Champollion
French philologist
1790-1832
 Egyptians knew
their Maths

-Peregrine Adventures (2003)

Fun Facts
*Egypt is home to the oldest surviving book on
mathematics. Penned by the ancient Egyptian scribe
Ahmes around 1650 B.C
*The ancient Egyptians were also exceedingly smart.
They first people to have a year consisting of 365 days
divided into 12 months – it helped them predict the
annual flooding of the Nile. They also invented clocks;
their pyramids are also evidences of how great
Egyptians are in Math.
Number System
01
Numbers inscribed in hieroglyphs
Primary Source: Rhind or Ahmes Papyrus
 *It was based on the 10 scale. By the use of a simple iterative
scheme and
of distinctive symbols for each of the first half-dozen powers of
10; numbers
greater than a million were carved on stone, wood, and other
materials.
Numbers in Hieroglyphs
Example
Let Us Try!

3244

21237
The Principle
of Cipherization
*The more cursive hieratic script used by Ahmes was
suitably adapted to the use of pen and ink on prepared
papyrus leaves. Numeration remained decimal, but the
tedious repetitive principle of hieroglyphic numeration
was replaced by the introduction of ciphers or special
signs to represent digits and multiples of powers of 10.
*The principle of cipherization, used in the Ahmes
Papyrus, represented an important contribution to
numeration, and it is one of the factors that makes our
own system in use today the effective instrument that it
is.
Egyptian Hieratic Numeration
 02
Multiplication
Uses only the ability to multiply and divide by 2,
and to add .
 Multiply à la Ancient Egyptian

÷2 x2 +
Halving Doubling Adding
Dividing the Dividend by two Multiplying the Divisor by two Adding all the entries
 Halving and Doubling
36 x 42

36 Odd entries 42
168
18 84 + 1344
9 168 1512
4 336
2 672
1 1344
 The Decomposition
36 x 42
Decomposition

1 Entries that would

add
42
up to the 168
2 multiplicand 84 + 1344
4 168 1512
8 336
16 672
32 1344
The Odd Halves
Match the
Powers of 2
How Come?
03
Division
Egyptians applied the same procedure when
multiplying but in reverse.
 Divide à la Ancient Egyptian
231 ÷ 33
Decomposition

1 33 1
2 66 + 2
4
4 132
Find entries that 7
would add up to or
would get close to
but not more than
the dividend: 231
04
Unit Fractions
Egyptians expressed their fractions as sums of
unit fractions
What are Unit
Fractions?
Fractions with one as the numerator
Egyptian’s Rules Regarding Fraction

* All fractions must have a one in the numerator

*Add Fractions with one in the numerator to create a

fraction with a numerator greater than one.
 Let’s have some examples

Unit fractions ½ 1/3 ¼ 1/5 1/6 1/8 1/20 1/30

Writing 7/8 as an egyptian fraction: Egyptian way of

½ + ¼ + 1/8 writing fractions
How did fractions looked like in
hieroglyphs?
 Write Fractions à la Ancient Egyptian
5/8
Fraction that we are dealing
Unit Fractions Final Form
with

1/2 5/8 1/2 + 1/8

1/3 Is it greater
In hieroglyphs:
than ½?
1/4
What would I add
1/5 to ½ to have 5/8?
1/8
…
 As future math
educators, let us learn
how and why the
mathematics today
became what it is.
 References
Azzolino, A. (2010). Ancient Egyptian Multiplication, Division, Root Extraction—
Computation. Retrieved on: August 27,2021. Retrieved from:
www.mathnstuff.com/math/spoken/here/2class/60/egyptm.htm

Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An introduction Seventh Edition. The McGraw-
Hill Companies, Inc. pp. 11-20.

Calaguing, H. A. M., De Guzman, M., Fortunado, S., Jaca, L. M., Labay, M. A., Mangune, E. M.,
Navidad, M., San Agustin, L. (N.D.). History of Mathematics. Polytechnic University of the
Philippines College of accountancy and finance. p.2.
 References

Knorr, Wilbur R. , Fraser, Craig G. , Berggren, John L. , Folkerts, Menso and Gray, Jeremy John.
"mathematics". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Nov. 2020,
https://www.britannica.com/science/mathematics. Accessed 27 August 2021.
 
Merzbach, U., Boyer, C. (2011). A History of Mathematics Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
Hoboken, New Jersey. pp. 8-11.

Peregrine Adventures. (2013). 11 things you didn’t know about Egypt. Retrieved on: August 27,
2021. Retrieved from:
https://www.peregrineadventures.com/blog/12/03/2013/11-things-you-didnt- know-about-
egypt/
 References

Porubský, Štefan. (2006). Peasant Multiplication. Retrieved 2021/8/27 from Interactive Information
Portal for Algorithmic Mathematics, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of
Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic, web-page:
https://www.cs.cas.cz/portal/AlgoMath/NumberTheory/Arithmetics/Multiplicati
on/PeasantMultiplication.htm. Accessed: August 27, 2021.
 Thanks
Do you have any questions?
Clarifications?

Reporter:
Arc Daniel Casakit Cabrera
CREDITS:
This presentation template was created by Slidesgo,
including icons by Flaticon, infographics & images by
Freepik