COLEGIO DE SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
De La Salle Supervised School
Guinsay, Danao City
S.Y. 2023 – 2024

HISTORY OF
MATHEMAT
ICS (Prelim)

Compiled by:
Mary May C. Manto, LPT

2023

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 Table of Contents

Module 1 Page No. Date

Unit I: The Development of mathematics: ancient period

Lesson 1:
Origins of Mathematics:
Egypt and Babylonia

Lesson 2:
Mathematics of Ancient
Greece

Lesson 3:
Islamic, Hindu and Chinese
Mathematics

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INTRODUCTION

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 LESSON 1
Origins of Mathematics: Egypt and Babylonia

Agriculture emerged in the Nile Valley in Egypt close to 7000 years ago, but the
first dynasty to rule both Upper Egypt (the river valley) and Lower Egypt (the
delta) dates from about 3100 bce. The legacy of the first pharaohs included an
elite of officials and priests, a luxurious court, and for the kings themselves, a
role as intermediary between mortals and gods. This role fostered the
development of Egypt’s monumental architecture, including the pyramids, built
as royal tombs, and the great temples at Luxor and Karnak. Writing began in
Egypt at about this time, and much of the earliest writing concerned accounting,
primarily of various types of goods. There were several different systems of measuring, depending on
the particular goods being measured. But since there were only a limited number of signs, the same
signs meant different things in connection with different measuring systems. From the beginning of
Egyptian writing, there were two styles, the hieroglyphic writing for monumental inscriptions and the
hieratic, or cursive, writing, done with a brush and ink on papyrus. Greek domination of Egypt in the
centuries surrounding the beginning of our era was responsible for the disappearance of both of these
native Egyptian writing forms. Fortunately, Jean Champollion (1790–1832) was able to begin the process
of understanding Egyptian writing early in the nineteenth century through the help of a multilingual
inscription—the Rosetta stone—in hieroglyphics and Greek as well as the later demotic writing, a form
of the hieratic writing of the papyri (Fig. 1.1)

It was the scribes who fostered the development of the mathematical techniques.
These government officials were crucial to ensuring the collection and distribution
of goods, thus helping to provide the material basis for the pharaohs’ rule (Fig. 1.2).
Thus, evidence for the techniques comes from the education and daily work of the
scribes, particularly as related in two papyri containing collections of mathematical
problems with their solutions, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, named for the
Scotsman A. H. Rhind (1833–1863) who purchased it at Luxor in 1858, and the
Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, purchased in 1893 by V. S. Golenishchev (d. 1947)
who later sold it to the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. The former papyrus was
copied about 1650 bce by the scribe A’h-mose from an original about 200 years older and is
approximately 18 feet long and 13 inches high. The latter papyrus dates from roughly the same period
and is over 15 feet long, but only some 3 inches high. Unfortunately, although a good many papyri have
survived the ages due to the generally dry Egyptian climate, it is the case that papyrus is very fragile.
Thus, besides the two papyri mentioned, only a few short fragments of other original Egyptian
mathematical papyri are still extant.

These two mathematical texts inform us first of all about the types of problems that needed to be
solved. The majority of problems were concerned with topics involving the administration of the state.
That scribes were occupied with such tasks is shown by illustrations found on the walls of private tombs.
Very often, in tombs of high officials, scribes are depicted working together, probably in accounting for
cattle or produce. Similarly, there exist threedimensional models representing such scenes as the filling
of granaries, and these scenes always include a scribe to record quantities. Thus, it is clear that Egyptian
mathematics was developed and practiced in this practical context.

One other area in which mathematics played an important role was architecture. Numerous remains of
buildings demonstrate that mathematical techniques were used both in their design and construction.
Unfortunately, there are few detailed accounts of exactly how the mathematics was used in building, so
we can only speculate about many of the details. We deal with a few of these ideas below.

1.1

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 Galatians 6:9
“Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up.”

Reference:
THE BASICS OF LINEAR ALGEBRA
Marcel B. Finan

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November 30, 2015

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