The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (i.e. papyrus British Museum 10057 and pBM 10058), is named after Alexander Henry Rhind, a Scottish antiquarian, who purchased the papyrus in 1858 in Luxor, Egypt; it was apparently found during illegal excavations in or near the Ramesseum. The British Museum, where the papyrus is now kept, acquired it in 1865; there are a few small fragments held by the Brooklyn Museum in New York. The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Buro Happold and Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ... Motto: (Eng: No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots 2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by... Papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus at Kew Gardens, London Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. ... 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... See also the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Statue of Ramses II Luxor is a city in Upper (southern) Egypt. ... The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramses II (Ramses the Great). ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... The Brooklyn Museum, located at 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, is the second largest art museum in New York City, and one of the largest in the United States. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ...

The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus dates to the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. It was copied by the scribe Ahmes (i.e., Ahmose; Ahmes is an older transcription favoured by historians of mathematics), from a now-lost text from the reign of king Amenemhat III (12th dynasty). Written in the hieratic script, this Egyptian manuscript is 33 cm tall and over 5 meters long, and was first translated in the late 19th century. The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. ... Ahmes (more accurately Ahmose) was an Egyptian scribe who lived during the Second Intermediate Period. ... Transcription is the conversion into written, typewritten or printed form, of a spoken language source, such as the proceedings of a court hearing. ... Pharaoh is a title used to refer to any ruler, usually male, of the Egyptian kingdom in the pre-Christian, pre-Islamic period. ... nomen or birth name Amenemhat III (ca. ... Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the Twelfth Dynasty. ... Development of hieratic script from hieroglyphs; after Champollion. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus, written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The papyrus has 84 problems with worked examples, written on both sides. Taking up roughly one third of the manuscript is a 2 / n table which expresses 2 divided by the odd numbers from 5 to 101 in terms only of unit fractions. Other topics covered include what we today recognise as algebra, geometry and trigonometry. In the opening paragraphs of the papyrus, Ahmes presents the papyrus as giving “Accurate reckoning for inquiring into things, and the knowledge of all things, mysteries...all secrets”. Algebra is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation and quantity. ... Table of Geometry, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Trigonometry Trigonometry (from the Greek trigonon = three angles and metron = measure [1]) is a branch of mathematics which deals with triangles, particularly triangles in a plane where one angle of the triangle is 90 degrees (right triangles). ...

For example, considering simple algebra Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (or RMP) 24 asked to find unknown x and 1/7th of x to equal a fixed number, in this case 19. Ahmes, the Egyptian scribe, worked the problem this way:

(8/7)x = 19, or x = 133/8 = 16 + 5/8,

with 133/8 being the initial vulgar fraction and 5/8 being the remainder vulgar fraction term. Ahmes converted 5/8 to an Egyptian fraction series by (4 + 1)/8 = 1/2 + 1/8, making his final quotient plus remainder based answer x = 16 + 1/2 + 1/8. The RMP includes 15 algebra problems of this type, with #24 being the easiest. Each of the RMP's other 14 algebra problems produced increasingly difficult vulgar fractions. Yet, all were easily converted to an optimal (short and small last term) Egyptian fraction series.

See also

• Papyrus Harris I
• Rollin Papyrus

Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and (less accurately) simply the Harris Papyrus (though there are a number of other papyri in the Harris collection). ...

References

• O'Connor and Robertson, 2000. Mathematics in Egyptian Papyri.
• Williams, Scott W. Mathematicians of the African Diaspora, containing a page on Egyptian Mathematics Papyri.
• Imhausen, A., Ägyptische Algorithmen. Eine Untersuchung zu den mittelägyptischen mathematischen Aufgabentexten, Wiesbaden 2003.
• Gardner, Milo, Egyptian math (blog).
• Clagett, Marshall. 1999. Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book. Volume 3: Ancient Egyptian Mathematics. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 232. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-232-5
• Allen, Don. April 2001. The Ahmes Papyrus and Summary of Egyptian Mathematics.
• Chace, Arnold Buffum. 1927-1929. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: Free Translation and Commentary with Selected Photographs, Translations, Transliterations and Literal Translations. Classics in Mathematics Education 8. 2 vols. Oberlin: Mathematical Association of America. (Reprinted Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1979). ISBN 0-87353-133-7
• Peet, Thomas Eric. 1923. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, British Museum 10057 and 10058. London: The University Press of Liverpool limited and Hodder & Stoughton limited
• Robins, R. Gay, and Charles C. D. Shute. 1987. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: An Ancient Egyptian Text. London: British Museum Publications Limited. ISBN 0-7141-0944-4
• Truman State University, Math and Computer Science Division. Mathematics and the Liberal Arts: The Rhind/Ahmes Papyrus.