Egyptian Numerals
Published On :2021-06-27 23:34:00
The Egyptians began writing from 3500 B.C, and their writing was the first to be engraved on stone. This writing, which we find inscribed on the walls of the temples and the faces of the obelisks, is called the hieroglyphic writing, which is a pictorial writing that takes a picture of an object to indicate it. Then the Egyptians made ink and made paper from rolls of papyrus tree bark, and they left Engraving and began to write on scrolls and with this development in the means of writing the Egyptian priests developed their writing itself, and this development resulted in what was called hieratic writing, which is the writing of priests. In the centuries preceding the birth (Christ), the Egyptians adopted a new writing with alphabet features for them, that is the popular demotic script (the mother of the Coptic script). Each of these writings had numbers and the shapes of numbers evolved with the development of writing, but the general character of the Pharaonic numbering remained the same.
It appears from the following figures, which are some forms of hieroglyphic numbers:
Since these pictures are different, they were placed in any order. The order in this case does not matter, but in most cases the order was from left to right.
And if we wanted to write large numbers, we noticed that this system is tired and wastes time and effort.
If the purpose of numbering was to denote numbers, then these numbers would be written in writing, but the most important goal is to facilitate mathematical operations.
When the Egyptian computer needed addition and subtraction, it was easy to perform these operations using the numbering system that followed As for the addition process, the Egyptian computer only has to combine the symbols together in order to obtain the sum of the combination with knowing that If ten symbols combine, then this is equivalent to the next symbol.
And in the case of subtraction, he only has to drop the small number signals from the big number signs
But if we talk about multiplication, division, roots, fractions, and foundations, then this numbering system will be useless.
In order for the Egyptian computer to overcome the multiplication problem, he invented the process of doubling and halving. This method became popular after the end of the Pharaonic civilization and passed on to the Greeks and Byzantines.
And it remained in use in Russia until recently
And so it is sometimes referred to as the Russian method
This process requires writing the symbol twice in doubling. If ten of the symbols are combined, they are replaced by the symbol that follows it.
Likewise, in halving, it is required that we take one from each of the two identical symbols, and if there is a separate symbol, we substitute it with five of the preceding symbol.
So, using the Egyptian numbering, the doubling and halving operation can be performed. The Egyptian computer took advantage of this method to perform the multiplication process
