Ahmes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahmes (more accurately Ahmose) was an Egyptian scribe who lived during the Second Intermediate Period. A surviving work of Ahmes is part of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus now located in the British Museum (Newman, 1956). Ahmes states that he copied the papyrus from a now-lost Middle Kingdom original, dating around 2000 BC. The work is entitled directions for knowing all dark things and is a collection of problems in geometry and arithmetic. The 87 problems are presented with solutions, but often with no hint as to how the solution was obtained. However, bringing in additional documents like the Akhmim Wooden Tablet, P. Reisner and the P. Kahun provide a range of methods that Ahmes drew upon.
Ahmes states without proof that a circular field with a diameter of 9 units is equal in area to a square with sides of 8 units (Beckmann, 1971). In modern notation:
- π(9/2)² = 8²
which leads to a value of pi approximately equal to 3.16, within two hundreths of the true value of pi. This irrational number pi tended to go beyond the rational number domain of Egyptian mathematics.
[edit] References
- Reisner Papyrus, http://reisnerpapyri.blogspot.com
- Ahmen. University of St. Andrews on Guido Castelnuovo. Retrieved on October 2, 2005.
- Beckmann, Petr (1971). A History of PI. New York:St. Martin's Press.
- Newman, James R. (1956). The World of Mathematics; Volume 1.
