the image looks like people surveying land for farming or a farmers land.
Post reading the article, yes they were surveying. I am curious what they thought of sqrt(2) and other irrational number in ancient Egypt and how many they were aware of besides sqrt(2). I was surprised that they had a unit which measured sqrt(2). Very surprising.
EDIT:
It was surprising because having an irrational number as a unit seems a bit of an odd choice, because how could you be able to understand the number you are measuring. It makes me wonder what they understood about the irrational numbers, and how much they knew about geometry. If Pythagoras drowned his student for irrational numbers like sqrt(2), but if Egyptians knew about it before Pythagoras then why did he drown his student?
You highlighted an important surprise about the remen being tied to √2. I wonder what it tells us about how the Egyptians approached ideas that we now call “irrational” long before modern mathematics named them. Could you elaborate a bit more on your surprise or your curiosity?
ReplyDeleteThanks Ben! Your edited reflection deepens your thinking about irrational numbers and history. You linked √2 to both Egyptian geometry and Greek philosophy in a creative way that opens up questions about how mathematical ideas travel through time.
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