Ancient Egyptian Math

The ancient Egyptians were amazing at math. They used it to build the pyramids, measure farmland, and keep tax records. They wrote numbers using special symbols called hieroglyphs and solved problems that still impress us today.

Egyptian Numbers

Egyptians used a base-10 system, like we do. They had symbols for 1, 10, 100, 1,000, and bigger numbers. A stroke meant 1. A heel bone shape meant 10. A coiled rope meant 100.

To write 234, they would draw two coiled ropes, three heel bones, and four strokes. They repeated symbols to show larger amounts.

Building the Pyramids

Building the pyramids took incredible math. The Great Pyramid is almost perfectly square at the base. Each side is about 756 feet long, and the sides differ by only a few inches.

Engineers calculated the angle of the sides, the amount of stone needed, and how to transport millions of blocks. They did all of this without modern tools or calculators.

Fun Facts

• Egyptians wrote math problems on a plant material called papyrus over 3,500 years ago.
• The Rhind Papyrus is one of the oldest known math textbooks.
• Egyptians used fractions, but they only used fractions with 1 on top, like 1/2, 1/3, and 1/7.

Did You Know?

The ancient Egyptians knew about the number pi! They calculated it to be about 3.16, which is very close to the real value of 3.14159.