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The Story of Maths

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isisinacrisis
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Joined: 14 Nov 2006
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The Story of Maths

If you are in the UK, look out on the BBC Iplayer for the documentary 'The Story of Maths'. Yes, I know, it's about maths, but the first episode is about ancient Egypt (as well as Mesepotamia and Greece) and it is very interesting.

It talks about the Egyptians' understanding of measuring units, fractions (including mention of the Eye of Horus), how they measured quantities, how they used maths in architecture and calculating taxes. The doc mentions how the Egyptians first calculated pi (I always thought that was first done by the Greeks but apparently Egyptians had a value for it too, which wasn't as accurate) using a board game called 'mankala' and also the 3-4-5 rope triangle which hints at Pythagoras' theorem, though the Egyptians didn't go further than that on these rope triangles. I found it interesting that the Egyptians even hinted at binary numbers (in their complex multiplication methods) and calculus (in the calculation of the volume of a pyramid).

Even if you don't understand it, do watch this show if you can.
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Post Tue Oct 07, 08 12:59 PM 
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Seshat
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Joined: 07 Oct 2006
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Thanks for mentioning this, Isi! Thumb I'm definitely going to try to find it tonight. Do you know what day it was originally shown on? Confused
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Post Thu Oct 09, 08 19:47 PM 
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