Objectives:

1. To introduce Egyptian numerals
2. To learn the Arithmetic of Egyptian numerals
3. To introduce Egyptian fractions

 

1.1 Egyptian Numerals (Lesson 1)

Civilisation reached its pinnacle in Egypt in as early as 3000 B.C.. By that time Egyptian had already developed their "hieroglyphic writing". Hieroglyphs are symbols/words in drawings, which are usually carved on stones. Here are the numeral hieroglyphs:

Then how can these numeral hieroglyphs be used to represent numbers? It is simple and straightforward. Let's take a look at the following examples:

Example 1.1.

To represent the number "276", Egyptians would write

Notice that the order of placing numeral hieroglyphs is not important.

Example 1.2.

To represent the number "4622", Egyptians would write