Egyptian Mathematics

            The ancient Egyptians used a base ten system of numbers. Each power of ten, 1, 10, 100, 1000 and so on, had its own symbol. Numbers were made by repeating the appropriate symbols.
The Egyptians used the following symbols for their numbers.

1 staff
10 heel bone
100 scroll
1,000 lotus flower
10,000 pointing finger
100,000 tadpole
1,000,000 astonished man

     to read an Egyptian number, you simply add the symbols that it is made up of. For example,
13 =
13 = 10 1 1 1
     As you can see, writing Egyptian numbers is a fairly simple task. You examine the number to be translated from left to right, for each digit put down that number of the apropriate symbol for the digit's place value. For instance, the number 143,370 consists of one hundred thousands symbol, four ten thousands symbols, three thousands symbols, 3 hundreds symbols, seven tens symbols and zero ones symbols. It is written as,
143,370 =
143,370 = 100,000 40,000 3,000 300 70 0

Concept Reveiw

     Translate into Egyptian numerals:
45 =

2567 =

150,789 =

23,199 =

1,000,000 =

     Translate into Hindu Arabic numerals:
=

=

=

=

=

Go to Egyptian fractions and Neugebauer Notation