From my reading, I understand that the Ancient Egyptians had some knowledge of solving quadratic equations. Is it known what applications they used this knowledge for, or whether they were studying these in a "pure maths" sense? Can anyone suggest any good references in this area?
2026-04-01 21:29:55.1775078995
Quadratic equations in Ancient Egypt.
536 Views Asked by Bumbble Comm https://math.techqa.club/user/bumbble-comm/detail At
1
There are 1 best solutions below
Related Questions in QUADRATICS
- Do you have to complete the square before using the quadratic formula?
- Roots of the quadratic eqn
- Questions on positivity of quadratic form with orthogonal constraints
- Conjugate quadratic equations
- Do Irrational Conjugates always come in pairs?
- Quadratic Equations and their roots.
- Solving a quadratic equation with square root constants.
- What would the roots be for this quadratic equation $f(x)=2x^2-6x-8$?
- Polynomial Equation Problem with Complex Roots
- Solve $\sin^{-1}x+\sin^{-1}(1-x)=\cos^{-1}x$ and avoid extra solutions while squaring
Related Questions in MATH-HISTORY
- Are there negative prime numbers?
- University math curriculum focused on (or inclusive of) "great historical works" of math?
- Did Grothendieck acknowledge his collaborators' intellectual contributions?
- Translation of the work of Gauss where the fast Fourier transform algorithm first appeared
- What about the 'geometry' in 'geometric progression'?
- Discovery of the first Janko Group
- Has miscommunication ever benefited mathematics? Let's list examples.
- Neumann Theorem about finite unions of cosets
- What is Euler doing?
- A book that shows history of mathematics and how ideas were formed?
Trending Questions
- Induction on the number of equations
- How to convince a math teacher of this simple and obvious fact?
- Find $E[XY|Y+Z=1 ]$
- Refuting the Anti-Cantor Cranks
- What are imaginary numbers?
- Determine the adjoint of $\tilde Q(x)$ for $\tilde Q(x)u:=(Qu)(x)$ where $Q:U→L^2(Ω,ℝ^d$ is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator and $U$ is a Hilbert space
- Why does this innovative method of subtraction from a third grader always work?
- How do we know that the number $1$ is not equal to the number $-1$?
- What are the Implications of having VΩ as a model for a theory?
- Defining a Galois Field based on primitive element versus polynomial?
- Can't find the relationship between two columns of numbers. Please Help
- Is computer science a branch of mathematics?
- Is there a bijection of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with itself such that the forward map is connected but the inverse is not?
- Identification of a quadrilateral as a trapezoid, rectangle, or square
- Generator of inertia group in function field extension
Popular # Hahtags
second-order-logic
numerical-methods
puzzle
logic
probability
number-theory
winding-number
real-analysis
integration
calculus
complex-analysis
sequences-and-series
proof-writing
set-theory
functions
homotopy-theory
elementary-number-theory
ordinary-differential-equations
circles
derivatives
game-theory
definite-integrals
elementary-set-theory
limits
multivariable-calculus
geometry
algebraic-number-theory
proof-verification
partial-derivative
algebra-precalculus
Popular Questions
- What is the integral of 1/x?
- How many squares actually ARE in this picture? Is this a trick question with no right answer?
- Is a matrix multiplied with its transpose something special?
- What is the difference between independent and mutually exclusive events?
- Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explain
- taylor series of $\ln(1+x)$?
- How to tell if a set of vectors spans a space?
- Calculus question taking derivative to find horizontal tangent line
- How to determine if a function is one-to-one?
- Determine if vectors are linearly independent
- What does it mean to have a determinant equal to zero?
- Is this Batman equation for real?
- How to find perpendicular vector to another vector?
- How to find mean and median from histogram
- How many sides does a circle have?
I am unaware of quadratic problems in ancient Egypt (except for a pure quadratic "equation" in the Berlin papyrus, which can be solved by the technique of false position). The Babylonians, on the other hand, were familiar with techniques for solving such problems. A very good source concerning their methods is Jens Hoyrup's book Algebra in cuneiform which is freely available here. Although they used these problems in the education of scribes and surveyors, the vast majority of these problems belong to what you call "pure maths".