History of Computers - Egyptian Number System

Intro

The Egyptian number system was an ancient number system that used bases of ten. This number system led to larger numbers for calculations.

Overview

The Egyptians created a number system to help them build structures and record information. The Egyptians created a series of symbols to represent numbers by ten. Read more about number systems at Binary Arithmetic.

Number System

The number system created by the Egyptians was found written on stone walls. Subtraction, multiplication, and division were incoorporated in. Egyptians used a bases of 10. Fractions expressed in the form of 1/n were also able to be expressed by using the Egyptian symbol for part and writing the numeral (n) underneath. These numbers were used for various purposes such as recording information and calculating numerous things such as angles, area, time, and money.

Symbols

The script was changed to hieroglyphic writing allowing them to read whole numbers. On the Rhind Papyrus are the proportions of the pyramid.

Significance

The Egyptian number symbol for ten led to larger numbers for calculations. This was one of the most primitive number systems and were a step toward our modern number system. These calculations helped advance the technology of computers.