Ancient Egyptions Math and Time

Have you ever wondered where fractions originated from? The ancient Egyptians used different methods for keeping time and using math. Thanks to the Egyptians, we have fractions, also a(use a because unique starts with y sound) unique way of telling time.

We all need math. We all use math for different reasons, the ancient Egyptians included. What the ancient Egyptians started recording was seasons and lunar phases. The measurements were in body parts, and their numeric system was based off of their ten fingers. They did not have a zero. All their numbers were based off of the number ten. The symbol would appear as many times as its value. It was written by scribes on papyrus, which was their paper. Papyrus was found near the Nile River. You could not eat papyrus, but you could use it for a lot of other things. The ancient Egyptians had multiplication and division methods also. For multiplication, you would double the number and they would use the same method for division but reversed. They had shapes such as triangles and rectangles.

Thanks to the ancient Egyptians we have fractions, which helps us get even more exact. The ancient Egyptians invented fractions which is great because fractions make it possible to have an even more exact answer. Horus' eye, which is from an old tale that describes Horus' brother who cut his eye out and all the different parts of the eye equal different fractions, for example, the pupil equals ??.

Time is used every day, but ancient Egyptians used it in a unique way. The ancient Egyptians used shadows to tell the time of the day. It was called an Obelisk. The Obelisk made the shadows, they each had their own story. Later, the ancient Egyptians made a shadow clock which was portable. It was the first portable timepiece; you could bring it with you and it was lightweight. It had about a foot long rod, marked with ten or twelve sections. During the morning, the rod would point toward the East. In the afternoon, it would point toward the West. The shadow would fall on markings to tell the time of the day.

The ancient Egyptians had interesting ways of keeping time. They were fantastic at math, and were very intelligent. Now you know how the ancient Egyptians kept time and used math.

Cite this page