Mathmatics+-+Counting+&+Time-telling+systems+(1)

Ancient Egyptian Mathematics, Time Telling, and Measuring

Ancient Egyptian Mathematics, Time Telling, and Measuring is very interesting. They were very smart for their time. They used a lot of advanced methods like calendars, in time telling, fractions, in mathematics, and royal cubits in measuring. The Ancient Egyptians were very intelligent for their time.

Ancient Egyptian numerals can be found on vases, stone monuments, and temples. Egyptian and roman numerals had similar down sides. Both the Ancient Egyptian numerals and roman numerals, did not have a zero. Both numeral systems were not good for calculations, but the Ancient Egyptians figured out and used fractions. This was very advanced for Ancient Egyptian times. The ancient numerals of Egypt didn’t give very much knowledge of how they might have been used.


 * The Ancient Egyptians kept track of the seasons using the flood cycle of The Nile.** Summer was when there was a very dry period of time. Winter was when underwater land reappeared. **The Ancient Egyptian calendar was 365 days long.** To tell time during the day, the Ancient Egyptians invented a sundial. **//To tell time at night, they invented a water clock.//** The sundial was a stick in the ground that had numbers around it. The stick casted a shadow, and whatever number the shadow was on, that indicated the time of day. The water clock, was a bowl with numerals in the inside. There was another bowl under the first one. As the water dripped down through the hole in the bottom of the first bowl, whatever number the water line was over, indicated what the time was at night. The Ancient Egyptians had a very advanced time tilling system.

The weight units in Ancient Egypt was a kite, deben, and a sep. A cubit was used for measuring length. A cubit was as long as the length of your elbow to your finger tip. One digit was the length of a finger. 28 digits was one royal cubit. One royal cubit is equal to 524 centimeters. The pyramid of Giza was built using this system. The Ancient Egyptians were very good at measuring.

Ancient Egyptians were smart in all categories. Wether its writing a fraction, Measuring a solid block of sand, telling the time, The Ancient Egyptians can do all of it.

Biblyography:

Harvey, Gill and Struan Reid. The Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. USA: Usborne Publishing Ltd 2001 Kaplan Leslie C. Technology of Ancient Egypt. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004 An overview of Egyptian Mathemtics, [|www.gap-system.org/] [] JJ O'connor EF Robertson 2000 1-10-12 The Invention of Clocks [|www.inventors.about.com] [] Mary Bellis 1-9-12