A Saga Of Math: Chapter Analysis

After reading the first several chapters of A Saga of Mathematics, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I had read about the evolution of the Ancient Egyptians. This was perhaps because in this chapter, we start by learning about a basic number system and end up advancing to the use of calendars. The two are not mutually exclusive, which I will explain further into my infographic. Through the course text and supplemental resources found online, I was able to explore the link between Ancient Egyptians and how we use mathematics today.

Although it may not have been called “base-ten” by Pharoahs, that is essentially what it was, or rather, what it would become. If you look at the place-value chart on the left, you’ll notice that we can create

a number by placing certain digits in certain places. For example, filling in each box with a 2 would give us 222,222,222. We know the value of this number because we understand that each digit has a value based on where it lies within the number. 200,000,000 + 20,000,000 + 2,000,000 + 200,000 + 20,000 + 2,000 + 200 + 20 + 2 =222,222,222. The only difference between this and how the Ancient Egyptians communicated numbers is that instead of using a digit to represent how many of each place value you have, you would re-write the symbol for that place value as many times as needed. So this number would be written out as God God Tadpole Tadpole Finger Finger Flower Flower Rope Rope Loop Loop Line Line. Think about how we use base-ten blocks. We use blocks, flats, rods, and units to entirely replicate their system of numbers!

This next section explains the key to the future of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. It is pretty self – explanatory, but I will elaborate. People are no longer worrying about where their day-to-day meal is coming from. Farmers have begun to use math to plan ahead and cater to a supply-and-demand economy. This allows for dabbling in new areas of interest, areas that they’ve probably always been curious about, but had not yet had the time or resources to allow for discovery.

Egyptian Priests are now able to truly study patterns going on in the world around them. Through the use of Geometry, measuring angles of planets and stars relative to a point of reference, and keeping track of moons, tides, etc, the Ancient Egyptians began collecting data that would soon allow them to create useful resources.

The resulting document was a 354-day lunar calendar. It contained 12 months split into three seasons. From storyofmathematics.com, They knew when their year began by watching for the appearance of certain stars! Eventually a ‘new and improved’ calendar with 12 months of 30 days was created, with 5 extra days added on to the end of the year, resulting in 365-day years.

As can be assumed, the Ancient Egyptians took advantage of understanding the passing of time to use for farming, predicting natural disasters, and to know when to begin shopping for the Pharoah’s birthday present.
For me, it was hard to wrap my brain around the fact that ancient society needs math to run smoothly. Now that I have a solid understanding of the cause-and-effect history that allowed this civilization to flourish, I feel comfortable having the impending argument that I have every year with my students, “why do we need to learn this?” Additionally, I am excited to challenge my students with the task of practicing Ancient Egyptian methods for solving basic operations. As stated in my Chapter One Discussion Post,