The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-07-15
fDr. q. Ebers, In Contemporary Revie'

M.
Algebra is an Arabic word, denotiDg the
science OF combining the separated. Inc
Moslems in Cairo zealously cultivated IL,
and after they came to know Eucild they
became great mathematicians on the OASIS
OF the writings Of Claudius Ptolem&us, anu
also great astronomers and geograpners'
In this province, too, they owe 10 tne an
cient Egyptians more than mas hl.her.o
been acknowledged. 1t is by no means &c.
cidental that the greatest mathematIclans OF
Hellenic antiquity were styled pupils OF the
Epyptians. or that 1t was said Of them that
they had lived on the Nile. Thales geo Il.
CHS reported TO have measured the height
of the Pyramids by their shadow. Pytha-
goras lived long in Egypt, and studied par
ticularly ut Heliopolis. lie Is SAID 10 nave
been master OF the Egyptian language. ana
Onuphis and Sonchis are mentioned as MS
principal teachers. In the same city OF
scholars was trained, under Nektaulbos L.,
Eudemos Of Knidos l357), who discovered,
among other things, that pyramid was
the third part Of a prism whose base ana
height were equal. 1t Is well known
that Euclid wrote his Elements III
Alexandria under the first Pt0lemy
(Soter). The great Eratosthenes, who
was the first to measure meridian
OF the earth, owed his success in
doing 80 to the previous inyestiga-
lions made in that department by the
Egyptians, who were already able to give
with tolerable accuracy the distance III
straight line from Alexandria to Tyana.
In all this there Is nothing that is new to
mathematicians but few Of them have any
acquaintance with the records that make
known to us the state OF mathematical
science among the Egyptians in the begin
ming of the second millennium b. Z. The
Rhind papyrus, preserved in the British
Museum, may be termed handbook OF
ancient Egyptian mathematics. IL was
written by certain Aahmesu, under one
OF the last Hykso kings, and shows that
the science Of ancient times continued to
exist even under the hated cOnquerors.
The Heidelberg Psychologist Eisenlohr
has published this remarkable codeX and
a translation OF IL, with the assistance OF
Kantor, the well-kfown authority on the
history of mathematics. Some of the mis-
taken renderings OF these schOlars-easlly
eycusable on account of the great difficulty
OF the matier-have been pointed ont in
most acute and stimulating paper by L..
Rhodet, which we recommend to the
attention Of all mathematicians. The
Rhind papyrus establishes the remark
able fact that certain processes OF
reckoning used by the writer OF that
very ancient document are identical with
processes found among the Greeks, and
through them among the Arabs and the
Western mathematicians OF the Middle
Ages, to whom the writings OF the Arabs
were made known, for the most part. by
Jewish scholars. When we find, for exam
pie, the arithmetical process OF the "false
stating" to have been practiced from the
time of Aahmesu (about 100 Il. CO. down
TO the sixteenth century A. d., that seems
remarkable enough; but it is more aston
ishing still TO find that certain examples OF
progression which eXtort a smile from us
on account OF the heterogeneous character
OF their arrangement, are contained
in the writings Of Fibonacci Leonardo Won
Pisa) about the year 1900 A. d., in exactly
the same form in which they are given by
Aahmesu. This fact, discovered by Rho
Diet, Is so remarkable, so easily understood,
and so striking to the eye, that II will in
terest even the lay mind. The Egyptian
example is stated thus: Scribes, Z; eats,
40; nice, 343; measures Of corn, 2,04l ;
bushels, 16,S07-total, 1867. That is,
there are scribes, and every scribe has 7
cats (4y; and every cat catches 7 mice
(343l; and every mouse in given time eats
measures Of corn (2,40D; and every mea-
sure when sown produces 7 bushels
Q6,S07). How much is the whole? 1867.