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by Dave Youngs.
This month's Puzzle Corner takes students back in time thousands
of years to ancient Egypt. The puzzle is one of many interesting math problems
that appear on a papyrus penned by the scribe Ahmes. In the papyrus, which
dates to about 1650 BC, Ahmes states that he is not the author, but simply
a scribe copying an earlier work. (Until the advent of the printing press,
meticulous hand copying by scribes was the only way to duplicate an already
existing work.) The papyrus was purchased by Egyptologist Alexander Rhind in
1858 and later donated to the British Museum. This document is referred to
by two names in the archeological literature, the Ahmes Papyrus and the Rhind
Papyrus. It is about one foot tall and 18 feet long. The papyrus is the chief
source of information about the mathematics of ancient Egypt.
To solve the puzzle presented here, ancient Egyptians had to multiply increasingly
large numbers, producing products which all happen to be powers of seven. While
students in the 21st century might be tempted to use calculators to solve the
problem, the intent is to have them do the calculations using paper and pencil.
A calculator can be used later to confirm their calculations.
Worksheet Puzzle Corner |
