The Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks

        It has been seen from the past years that many Greek and ancient mathematicians are involves in making huge difference and contribution by changing thoughts of the world. Their mathematicians were capable of doing work that are related to different sciences that is started from geometry and move towards engineering works. Some Greek mathematician were able to design astrology. These people were amazed from the Egyptians and then according to that these Greek mathematicians made a lot of breakthroughs that may include like Pythagoras theorem. This theorem is made for solving right angle triangle problems. This theorem is able to solve different mathematical problems that is related to right angle triangle with clarity. Many mathematical solutions from these people was convoluted   in making a fundamental mathematical block. This fundamental mathematical block will help different future scientist and mathematicians to build a building on that base (Edwards).

Early impacts of the Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks  

             The birth of different Greek Mathematics got their experience from their neighbors’ areas that may include Egypt. During the 26th BC century the Egypt had opened ports of Nile for the Greek traders so that from that place they are able to get different type of information about different subjects. From this trading offer by the Egyptians the Greek mathematicians figure out different and unique concepts like Thales and Pythagoras theorem.

            A few century later when Alexander the great conquered the east so during that time many Greek philosopher increase their knowledge about astrology and flourished themselves. Afterwards the astronomical knowledge that is related to Chaldean and Babylonian culture that is available in different Greek Books through this they can exploit their experience. This activity from the Greek mathematicians may led to different tools that is used to solve different mathematical problems. These mathematical tools include the use of numerical systems that have a base of 60 and that enable the Greek mathematician to divide a simple circle into 360 parts and each part named as degree.

            There is only a minor problem in the mathematical systems that is the use of 60 as the base. This is because 60 is that number that have many divisors like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30 and 60 so that makes quite easy with those calculations that include fractions. Many Greek mathematicians are involved in given different concepts of numbers and other mathematical terms because they were motivated from Egyptian. Like Strabo was known as the famous geographer that gave a famous and valuable idea about the word geometry, that has a basic meaning of land measuring. He has explained the origin of Geometry with the help of simple example that is about the flooding of the Nile River (Joseph).

Early accomplishments of the Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks

            With the passage of time the Greek mathematician worked on the advancement in mathematical knowledge and then after some time they became superior than Egyptian. In the early stage of 3500 BC Egyptian mathematical calculations have become one of the finest and important in the world. Many Egyptian uses their mathematical knowledge to solve problems that is related to engineering. This can be seen from their amazing and breathtaking structures like Pyramids and other building that are impossible to make without this knowledge.

            Many Greek mathematician gain knowledge from Egyptian that is mostly related to the rules of thumbs and their basic applications. However, that knowledge help them to solve different mathematical problems quite easily without any difficulty. The Egyptian were excellent in developing different unique structures because their concepts were clear about engineering. They know that the side of the triangle are given in a ratio of 3:4:5 then it is a right angle triangle according to the Pythagoras theorem. In the old days when the Egyptian wanted to form a right angle triangle practically so they used a rope and divide it into 12 equal parts and this form a simple triangle that have three parts on one side, five parts on the other side and four parts on the last side of the triangle (Bochner).

            Then after this the right angle triangle will be formed where these sides are connected together. How Egyptians are able to find this method to draw right angle triangle was not recorded in the history books. These peoples were quite sincere with their work and they are extremely practical by analyzing any problem in detail. Then after this a Greek member named as Ionia noticed the Egyptian phenomenon to draw right angle triangle practically afterwards he named this Pythagoras theorem and then he stretched the issue of this right angle triangle up to logical limit and this will trigger intellectual revolution in the field of mathematician.

        The Greek scientist name Pythagoras was the one that have given a named to this right angle triangle and this scientist was the founder and leader of this movement and their followers were called as Pythagoreans.  The member of this particular movement convinced that this universe can be easily describe in the form of whole number that is started from 0 to infinity. The Egyptians were only familiar with 3:4:5 triangle but after some time Pythagoras was came up with different mathematical theorem and that is related to its name. This theorem can be explained in simple words that the area of two smaller sider were squared and then added so this area will be equal to the square of largest side and this area must be opposite to right angle triangle (Edwards).

            The Greek mathematician started using this theorem in geometer rather than in numbers. This theorem was quite important for the Greek mathematicians because this was involved in the development of different techniques like abstraction technique and this technique was based on ignoring different physical considerations. Other important mathematical techniques were generalization technique, the technique of deductive reasoning, technique for demonstrative deductive arguments. This technique was involved in mixing two techniques that are generalization and deductive reasoning. The Pythagoras was the scientist that was responsible for important Greek innovations that is related to mathematical problems.

Opening problem in mathematics: the square root of 2

            Moreover, after this theorem the new problem that has been arrived and it became a basic question for the mathematician. This problem is related to the square root of 2. However, we know that basically the square root of 2 is an irrational number so this means that number is unable to express through simple fractions. But in the past Greeks were unaware of this square root of 2 so they worked on it and try to solve this basic problem in mathematics (Edwards).

 The system of Euclidian of the Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks

            He was an ancient mathematician from Greek nation and he was familiar with different works that are related to math, so he combine all his knowledge to make a comprehensive work in his book that is about element. In this book he had mentioned some important definitions that is related to geometry. Like the definition of point, line, straight line and surface. He was the one that was involved in managing different concepts of mathematics in a single book named as Elements so he was just a compiler of different concepts of geometry.

There were some drawbacks in Elements that include, he just relay on deduction rather than tracing induction. The second major drawback of this book was that only rely on logical sequences. This means that this this book only follows that theorems that has been proved in the previous times (Bochner).

The problem of Delian of the Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks

            After the problem of square root of 2 then after this another problem arrived and it was related to duplication of cube. The Greek mathematician had no idea how to solve this problem. Then after this that problem is solved by changing the side of cube and measure its length. That was about the determining the value of cube root of 2. This issue was solved by the Greek mathematician named Plato (Boyer and Merzbach).

            In the old times, it is need to be noticed that Greeks understood all the mathematical methods, as they focused on that how to elude the Egyptians, they also concerned on the importance of mathematical circle that was related with the area of a square. Moreover, in the case of square, the sides were focused by the 8/9 of the circle’s diameter and other diameters so that different calculations can be predicted. With the calculation value of the mathematical pi Greeks understood that which value can be exact, as pi value decided is 256/81. With the accurate calculation and sometimes also with the half percent error there were effective results under the Egyptian engineering (Joseph).

        Sometimes there were good results and sometimes there were half percent error, impressive monuments were also calculates with the half percent error. For the effectiveness and with the fundamental property the true value of pi was find out, as there were fraction that can express it better values. With the fraction 7/5, there was also focus on the value that was related with the square root of 2, the irrational numbers also concerned and the rounded up values were noticed. Greeks were mathematically consistent and irrational in the nature. For the mathematical accuracy they also gained the knowledge related with the astronomy and also got the intellectual achievements. The Pythagoreans had find the solution of this problem but they kept it secret, the main reason was many members of this movement had other beliefs about it (Struik).

References of the Influence Go Egyptian Math on the Greeks

Bochner, Salomon. Role of Mathematics in the Rise of Science. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Boyer, Carl B. and Uta C Merzbach. A history of mathematics. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Edwards, CH Jr. The historical development of the calculus. . Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Joseph, George Gheverghese. The crest of the peacock: Non-European roots of mathematics. Princeton University Press, 2010.

Struik, Dirk J. A concise history of mathematics . Courier Corporation, 2012.