The Rhind Papyrus
The Rhind Papyrus represents one of the most important testimonies for understanding the origins of mathematics in Ancient Egypt. The Rhind Papyrus (or Ahmes Papyrus) was found among the ruins of the Ramesseum in Luxor and is now housed in the British Museum in London.
It is about 30 cm wide and approximately 5.46 m long. The Rhind Papyrus, written in hieratic script by the scribe Ahmes, dates back to the 33rd year of the reign of Apophis, around 1650 BC, and is based on a copy dating from the XII Dynasty under the reign of Amenemhat III, around 1800 BC.
The papyrus contains 87 mathematical problems, each of which begins with the first words written in red to separate them from each other. Among the various mathematical problems, there is a formula that demonstrates how the area of a circular field with a diameter of 9 units is equal to the area of a square with a side of 8 units:
A round field is 9 khet in diameter. What is its area? Subtract 1/9 from the diameter; the remainder is 8. Multiply 8 by 8: it equals 64. So, it contains 64 setat.
This is an approximate formula for calculating the area of a circle with a diameter x:
By comparing this hypothesis with the modern formula for calculating the area of a circle
it is found that the Egyptian rule attributes a value of approximately 3 + 1/6 to π, an approximation quite close to the exact value and worthy of consideration.
For many years, it was assumed that the Greeks had learned the rudiments of geometry from the Egyptians; Aristotle explained that geometry was born in the Nile Valley, although to find more advanced mathematical achievements, one must look to the more turbulent valley of Mesopotamia.
