sourced story
c. 1650 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Egyptian Scribes Write the Rhind and Moscow Papyri

A scribe named Ahmes copies an 1800 BCE document and unit fractions solve problems the Egyptian number system could not handle directly

On the timeline · around c. 1650 BCE · Ancient MathematicsAncient MathematicsEgyptian Scribes Write the Rhind and Moscow Papyri2,000 BCE1,750 BCE1,500 BCE1,250 BCE1,000 BCE

Quick facts

Rhind Papyrus written
c. 1650 BCE, by the scribe Ahmes
Rhind Papyrus problems
87 total, 81 involving fractions
Moscow Papyrus problems
25, including geometry
Egyptian fraction convention
Sums of distinct unit fractions (numerator 1)

What happened

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, now in the British Museum, was written around 1650 BCE by a scribe named Ahmes, who states in the text that he is copying a document roughly 200 years older. It contains 87 problems, 81 of which involve operating with fractions, alongside a table expressing the fractions 2 divided by n, for every odd n from 3 to 101, as sums of fractions with a numerator of 1. A companion document, the Moscow Papyrus, dates from the same period, was written by a scribe whose name was not recorded, and contains 25 problems including geometric ones, among them a calculation of the volume of a truncated pyramid. Because Egyptian arithmetic had no convenient way to write general fractions, scribes built up quantities from sums of distinct unit fractions, a system practical enough for the trade, land-measurement, and bread- and beer-division problems that make up most of both papyri.

Why it matters

The Rhind and Moscow papyri are the two largest surviving sources for what Egyptian mathematicians actually knew, and they show a tradition oriented entirely toward solving specific practical problems step by step rather than toward general rules or proof, the opposite of the approach Greek mathematics would take up a thousand years later.

How we know

Both papyri are physical documents; the Rhind Papyrus has been held in the British Museum since 1864, and Ahmes's own note that he copied an older source is written directly into the text, giving scholars a documented chain back toward an original composed around 1850 BCE.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineHistory of Mathematics26 events · A number system built for taxes, a theorem older than the man it's named for, a proof too long for a margin, and an infinity too big to countView all →