Salut mes amants des maths!
C'est vendredi, youpi!
(Hello, my math lovers! It's Friday, yay!)It's finally Friday! What a long first week with so much to do!
We had our first quiz today in Math 111. (It was a bit scary indeed)
So, let's go over what was covered in lecture and what I've read in section 1.2.1, which talks about the methods of computations of the Babylonians and the their number preferences when solving problems.
Today, a lot of what we went over had to do with unit fractions. What are unit fractions? Basically, a unit fraction is the reciprocal of any positive integer, 1/n, if you will. The Egyptians only dealt with unit fractions with the special exception of 2/3. Generally, they would represent 1/ n (the nth part) in hieroglyphics by the symbol for the arbitrary integer n below a small oval symbol. Algorithms could then be applied to these unit fractions; the answer then being converted into a unit fraction as well.
Related to today's lecture topic of Egyptian mathematics was the approach Egyptians took toward geometry. Like the Babylonians, they had their own way of dealing with geometric problems. For example, the Rhind Papyrus contains several geometric problems consisting of the calculation of several circle areas. With respect to this particular Papyrus, the Egyptian scribe used a procedure described by the formula A = [d-(d/9)]^2
Pretty cool stuff right? Until next time!
Bisous!
-MB
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