Saturday 9 January 2016

Egyptian numbers

Hieroglyphic Numbers

The Egyptians had a decimal system using seven different symbols.
  • 1 is shown by a single stroke.
  • 10 is shown by a drawing of a hobble for cattle.
  • 100 is represented by a coil of rope.
  • 1,000 a drawing of a lotus plant.
  • 10,000 is represented by a finger.
  • 100,000  a tadpole or frog
  • 1,000,000 figure of a god with arms raised above his head.
    Hieroglyphic Numbers
    Hieroglyphic Numbers

3,244 and 21,237
3,244 and 21,237

Writing numbers is quite simple; the higher number is always written in front of the lower number and where there is more than one row of numbers the reader should start at the top.

2 comments:

  1. Why do Egyptians need so hard numbers? OMG! Who can even think of representing number as a flower?

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    Replies
    1. I guess building those pyramids probably involved some very big numbers!

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