In response to Byrd:

Yes they did have 'decimal fractions'.

0.5 = 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10

There is a cubit ruler in the Louvre which has a division of the digit into 10 parts which are decimal fractions of a digit.

But I actually wrote 36.5 rather than 36 1/2 (one over two) because it is simpler to write.

Anyone who ever picked up the ruler, who understood the ruler, knew that 2 x (1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10) = 1 (instantly).

In our notation 2 x 0.5 = 1

Therefore, written as 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 + 1/10 = 1

Petrie regarded a number such as the square root of 3.6 (x 1 cubit) as within the grasp of the ancient Egyptians from his model of 'square fifths of a cubit' in accounting for some of the selected dimensions in the Great Pyramid and Khafre's pyramid.

I can show how this was done limiting myself to the mathematical tools found in RMP, MMP and other surviving documents

The Egyptian system of counting is a decimal system.

They obviously had fractions such as 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, 1/9, 1/11, 1/12, 1/13, 1/14, 1/15, 1/16 as apparent from the aforementioned ruler

You can't exclude 1/10 or that fact that fractions of unity can be counted on a ruler in tenths including 5 x 1/10

Mark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2021 02:01AM by Mark Heaton.