Berlin Papyrus

The Berlin Papyrus 6619, commonly known as the Berlin Papyrus [ [http://www.ethnomath.org/resources/lumpkin1997.pdf#search=%22%22berlin%20mathematical%20papyrus%22%20number%22 Lumpkin, Beatrice, "The Mathematical Legacy of Ancient Egypt - A Response to Robert Palter", 2004. National Science Foundation. p17] ] is an ancient Egyptian papyrus document from the Middle Kingdom. [Corinna Rossi, "Architecture and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt", Cambridge University Press 2004, p.217] This papyrus was found at the ancient burial ground of Saqqara in the early 19th century CE.

The papyrus contains ancient Egyptian mathematical and medical knowledge, including the first known documentation concerning pregnancy test procedures, and is thus part of the medical papyri.

The Berlin Papyrus contains a problem stated as "the area of a square of 100 is equal to that of two smaller squares, of two second degree equations. The side of one is ½ + ¼ the side of the other." [Richard J. Gillings, "Mathematics in the Time of the Pharoahs", Dover, New York, 1982, 161.] The interest in the question may suggest some knowledge of what would later be named the Pythagorean theorem, though it more likely shows a straight forward solution of two second degree equations, stated as one unknown, and not two unknowns, as sometimes suggested.

ee also

* Papyrology
* Timeline of mathematics
* Egyptian fraction
* Medical papyri

References

External links

* [http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_egyptpapyrus.html#berlin%20papyrus Simultaneous equation examples from the Berlin papyrus]
* [http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/Ancient-Africa/mad_ancient_egypt_algebra.html Two algebra problems compared to RMP algebra]
* [http://www.uni-graz.at/exp8www/PhysiCult/papyrus%20Berlin.htm Two suggested solutions]
* [http://www.copticmedical.com/Medicine%20of%20Pharaohs.htm Medicine of the Pharaohs]