Page 146 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age

A HISTORICAL LIE: THE STONE AGE

An Advanced Level of Mathematics
Numbers were used in Ancient Egypt from very early times.
Papyruses from 2,000 BCE describing mathematical problems have
been found. The four most referred
to documents are known as the
Kahun fragments, and Berlin,
Moscow and Rhind papyruses.
These documents state, with exam-
ples, the bases on which measure-
ments are made. The Egyptians
knew that a triangle whose sides
measure 3:4:5 is a right triangle, and
made use of this knowledge (which
is now called the Pythagoras
Theorem) in their construction cal-
The Rhind Papyrus
culations. 51
In addition, the Egyptians knew the difference between planets
and stars. They added the stars, some of which are very hard to see
with the naked eye, to their studies of astronomy.
And since the Egyptians' lives were dependent on the Nile, they
had to check its level during its annual floods. The ruler had a
"Nilometer" made to measure the height of the river waters, and ap-
pointed officials for that purpose. 52

A Construction Technology Full of Secrets

The most important structures built in Ancient Egypt, at which
visitors still gaze in wonder today, are the mysterious pyramids. The
most magnificent of them is the Great Pyramid, regarded as the
largest stone edifice constructed in the world to date. Historians and
archaeologists since the time of Herodotus have put forward various

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