As the method was found on several papyrus, we now call this technique egyptian fractions . An egyptian number is any number equal which can be expressed as the sum of an integer plus the sum of an Egyptian fraction. Even the name pi is Greek. The rule of Egyptian fractions requires us to write only unit fractions, integers, and their sums. Until the 18'th century, when our present method, from India and also thousands of years old, of writing any integer in the numerator became popular in Europe, Egyptian fractions were the primary method of writing non-integer numbers.
Every rational number is an egyptian number.
The modern proof of the Theorem was discovered in 1880, but European's have known how to compute Egyptian numbers since Fibonacci in the 12'th century. Before exhibiting the rule we make a convention. There are, however, interesting and important problems. We include some of these in the problem section below. The eldest son then took 10 of the horses, the middle son took 5 of the horses, and the youngest son took 4 of the horses.