A Fraction of History

- An extensive treatment of fractions appeared around 1600 B.C. in the Rhind Papyrus, which contained the work of Egyptians mathematicians.

The Egyptians did not express fractions as ratios such as 2:5 or 2/5.

They expressed ratios in unit fractions.

Egyptians used their symbols to represent this fraction.
1/3 + 1/15 would be represented as shown below:

Notice that all we care about is the man's feet. Feet pointing toward the direction of writing means add. Otherwise, it means subtract...

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