The history of numbers, their origin and how they have evolved is something important to know the reason for our own numerology. Although we already saw in another article what Roman numerals were and what they consisted of and although they are somewhat better known, they are not the only ones that have influenced current numbering, and we have, for example ancient egyptian numbers of which we now give you all the details. Next in Overstory we present the Egyptian numbering and Egyptian numbers.
History of Egyptian numerals
The Egyptian numeration, and therefore, the Egyptian numbers were a important section in the history of the ancient pharaonic reign.
Far from resembling the graphs that represent the numbers that we know, the egyptian numbers were represented with various ideograms.
the system Egyptian numbering represented numbers ranging from one to millionsappearing at the beginning of hieroglyphic writing.
three millennia before from the era of Christthe egyptians they already had him first developed numbering system with root 10. This allowed the use of large numbers, also describing small quantities in the form of unit fractions, called the fractions of the eye of horus.
But despite this great development within numerical writing, the same it was hardly used in the daily life of the Egyptians. This is because most of the administrative texts were written on papyrus or ostraca rather than carved in stone, and the vast majority of texts using the Egyptian numeral system they used the hieratic notation.
For the hieratic notation a different number system was used, in which signs were used for the numbers 1 to 9repeating according to the tens, hundreds and thousands.
The orientation for his writing it was indistinct: they could write from left to right, upside down or upside down, changing the orientation of the figures depending on the case. Many times this numerical arrangement varied to achieve greater aesthetic harmony, and they used to be accompanied by hieroglyphs corresponding to the type of object whose number they indicated.
And although it can be thought, currently, that it is a rather confusing system (I would say that the expression difficult to understand is better), the truth is that hieratic notation was something that was used in daily life. As most of the administrative and accounting texts were written on papyrus or in ostraca instead of being engraved in hard stone (something that was done with hieroglyphic texts). We can say then that the great majority of the texts that used the Egyptian numeral system used the hieratic notation. Throughout history, it has been possible to find samples of numerals written in hieratic since the archaic period. . The papiros of Abusir of the Old empire for exampleare a particularly important set of texts that use hieratic numerals.
Let us now see what they were like and what meaning the Egyptian numbers have.
egyptian numbers
According to the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians dominated advanced mathematics, in fact, they are credited with the foundations of current mathematics. Indeed, the Egyptians They used a transcription system of cardinal and ordinal numbers.
- the of whole numbers were based on a decimal system.For example, him number 1was written with a simple vertical line, and for 9 they drew nine linesit has no mystery.
- was used the same method for the symbols of 10,which was therefore written three times to refer to thirty and so on for the cases of 100, 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000.
- Apparently, and from what is seen in hieroglyphs, lThe names of the numbers were: ua (1), senu (2), jemet (3), fedu (4), diu (5), seru (6), sejef (7), jemenu (8), pesedyu (9), medyu (10) , dyebati (20), maba (30), jem (40), diiu (50), sersiu (60), sefejiu (70), jemeniu (80), pesedyiu (90), shet (100), ha (1,000) , dyeba (10,000),jefen (100,000) and jej (1,000,000).
- On the other hand these names were almost never written and to write lass dates the ordinals were widely used: tepi was the “first”, from two to nine the ending “nu” was added to the cardinal, thus, the third was “jemetnu” (jemet+nu). From ten onwards, “mej” was put in front, so that mej -13 was something like thirteenth.
These signs were used until the incorporation of Egypt to the Roman empire and its use was reserved for monumental inscriptions, giving a break to the scribes who began to use hieratic and demotic writing, simpler and more comfortable methods.
Convert from Egyptians to Decimals and from Decimals to Egyptians
Converting numbers from our decimal system to the system used in Ancient Egypt and vice versa is not complicated at all. You just have to master the mechanics, which, on the other hand, is very simple and know which symbol corresponds to each number.
For example, let’s try the number 233. It is a very simple number that will be very easy to convert. The first thing to do is separate the number according to the Egyptian numbering system. In this way we would have:
100 + 100
10 + 10 + 10
1 + 1 + 1
You must do this “separation” of the number because in the Egyptian system, as you have already seen, there are no numbers 3 or 7, as such, but they only represented 1, 10, 100, 1,000 To reach numbers like 7 , 60 or 800, you just have to repeat the appropriate symbol the corresponding number of times.
That is, you would have to substitute 2 times the symbol for 100, 3 times the symbol for 10 and another 3 times the symbol for one to form the number 233 in Egyptian numerals. We put the table with the figures and their equivalences again to make it easier for you. Surely now you know how to convert the number yourself.
To convert larger values, you just have to follow the same simple procedure. The only negative point of this system is that for certain figures a large number of symbols were needed. For example, the number 100,000 could be represented with a single symbol, however, to represent a smaller number, such as 6,897, it would be necessary up to 30 symbols (6 for thousands, 8 for hundreds, 9 for tens and 7 for units).
Other contributions of the Egyptians to mathematics
The Egyptians can be considered as one of the great technological peoples of antiquity. His mastery of mathematics and its practical application in other areas is still fascinating today.
Apart from great contributions to such as the decimal system that we have discussed in this article, they knew how to apply mathematics, for example to the construction of the pyramids, whose size, number of blocks and orientation is still today a prodigy of engineering and mathematical accuracy. The Egyptians could calculate areas and surfaces, volumes and they mastered the measurements perfectly. They were also one of the founding fathers of algebra.
Many of these mathematical advances served them, surely, to make many other discoveries that are attributed to the Egyptian people. It is known that they were great connoisseurs of the universe and that they were even able to calculate the dimensions of the Earth.
As we see, the decimal number system was just one of the advances of the mighty Ancient Egypt in the field of mathematics. However, many other secrets that this ancient civilization surely holds, whatever the discipline, remain a mystery even today.
Curiosities of Egyptian numbers
To finish, we offer you some curious facts about Egyptian mathematics and the Egyptian number system.
Although initially the Egyptian numeral system did not have the number 0, they ended up developing it approximately towards the second millennium before Christ. However, they did not use it in their daily life, rather its use used to have a architecture-related applicationbeing used to mark the base of large constructions, such as the pyramids. This development also led to what has been considered the first use of negative numbers, since any additions made below that basic level (such as a tunnel or passageway) had to be indicated by numbers as well. below that value of 0 that had already been indicated. But, despite its existence in the architectural field, the Egyptian number system did not have a specific use for zero, which was not used in its common mathematical operations and is not related to the main place given to it by other cultures such as the Mayans or the Arabs, through whom it was incorporated into the Western system. Therefore, it is generally considered that the Egyptians did not have zero, although they did have this small but very significant use in their culture.
the egyptians too used fractions with which they made complex calculations, which demonstrates their evolved knowledge in the mathematical field. His calculation system using fractions continued to be used long after the disappearance of the ancient Egyptian civilization as we conceive it after the conquest of Alexander the Great. This system was adopted by the Greeks and its use lasted well into the Middle Ages, which has allowed us to learn more about its use thanks to such important writings as the well-known Liber Abaci, by Leonardo de Pisa, known as Fibonacci, which saw the light at the beginning of the thirteenth century of our era. Likewise, the Egyptians were also capable of carrying out operations such as multiplications, divisions and equations, which proves once again the great complexity of its numerary system.
Thanks to the remains that have come down to us, we know that Egyptian mathematics was also strongly influenced by the discoveries made by other civilizations in this regard and that they incorporated into their system the advances that they considered most useful to them. Special mention goes to the early Greek mathematicians, many of whose theories were incorporated into the Egyptian numeral system, as evidenced, for example, by the famous Ahmes Papyrus or Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Thus, the theories of characters as relevant as Pythagoras, Euclid or Eudoxus, to name just a few, were also known by the Egyptians, who incorporated them into their system of thought and regularly applied them in practice.
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Bibliography:
- Ancient Egypt by Maria Cristina Guidotti and Valeria Cortese
- The Riddle of the Stone by Christian Jacq