Count Like an Egyptian: A Hands-on Introduction to Ancient Mathematics

by David Reimer

A lively collection of fun and challenging problems in ancient Egyptian math

The mathematics of ancient Egypt was fundamentally different from our math today. Contrary to what people might think, it wasn't a primitive forerunner of modern mathematics. In fact, it can’t be understood using our current computational methods. Count Like an Egyptian provides a fun, hands-on introduction to the intuitive and often-surprising art of ancient Egyptian math. David Reimer guides you step-by-step through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and more. He even shows you how fractions and decimals may have been calculated―they technically didn’t exist in the land of the pharaohs. You’ll be counting like an Egyptian in no time, and along the way you’ll learn firsthand how mathematics is an expression of the culture that uses it, and why there’s more to math than rote memorization and bewildering abstraction.

Reimer takes you on a lively and entertaining tour of the ancient Egyptian world, providing rich historical details and amusing anecdotes as he presents a host of mathematical problems drawn from different eras of the Egyptian past. Each of these problems is like a tantalizing puzzle, often with a beautiful and elegant solution. As you solve them, you’ll be immersed in many facets of Egyptian life, from hieroglyphs and pyramid building to agriculture, religion, and even bread baking and beer brewing.

Fully illustrated in color throughout, Count Like an Egyptian also teaches you some Babylonian computation―the precursor to our modern system―and compares ancient Egyptian mathematics to today’s math, letting you decide for yourself which is better.

Genres: History, Mathematics, Nonfiction, Egypt, Science, History Of Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Trever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy fractions Batman!!

Lots of fractions and math, when it said that students in junior high would be able to understand, maybe extreme junior high.

This book would be a great pairing in high school classes to learn fractions a new way. Great book about Egyptian numbers and history. A must read for anyone who loves numbers or Egypt.

Great book.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can now Count Like an Egyptian

This critter is designed as a teaching tool and has some fun exercises.

If you are interested in different math theories this is a great intro to a different way of thinking.

An added value is the esoteric descriptions of other things Egyptian that is not necessarily count-related.

It is what the title implies about counting and uses contemporary coins as examples. What it is not is a book on the more exotic useful math and geometry used by the Egyptians.

One book cannot be everything. But I can now Count Like an Egyptian.
And it is fun fun fun.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fascinating and the history of it was cool. I just wasn't expecting this to be such a math textbook.

[Katja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four years ago I read Paul Johnson's "The Civilization of Ancient Egypt" which I totally loved and which made me love Egypt. Ancient Egyptians were impressive in so many ways (art, medicine, writing, organization, ...) but, according to Johnson, their mathematical achievements were disappointing, their mathematical system was poorly designed and awkward to use. This was something I could not fully believe because how could they then build pyramids so precisely? So when I read a positive review of Reimer's book I had big hopes for a rebuttal. And I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, the evidence about Egyptian math is very scarce but what is left does not look awkward if you learn to appreciate the inner beauty of the system. This review is not the right place to re-tell the main points, if you are curious, I encourage you to read the book. It is full of fun exercises, the notation is easy to follow, at least one third of the book is not about Egyptian math but gives an interesting and relevant context. Also, I wish I read this book when I was 14 so it may be a good present for a math-loving child.

[Jim Foley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has carefully studied ancient Egyptian arithmetic, and concluded that their methods compared favorably to modern methods, and in many ways were better. This is a well-written, well-researched book, filled with interesting historical and cultural anecdotes, and is not just for us math guys.

[Dag Kvittem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very vell written explanations about how egyptians used multiplication and division. Especially the part about fractions is a very interesting read. Recommend this book for educators that want to introduce multiplication and divission. To see how egyptians used fractions can be an eyeopener for understanding why fractions are a vital part of mathematical progress in a society in ancient times.

[Kiddo]

Tried in 2020, but too dense.

[Jenny GB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book! I knew nothing about Egyptian mathematics before reading this book and it was fascinating to learn how Egyptians solved problems and how some of their methods are superior to our modern methods. Reimer writes with a wonderful mix of facts and stories about Egypt that provide context or entertain. He them moves into describing how Egyptians performed calculations with examples and problems for you to practice so that you can learn along as you go. I did most of the exercises in the first few chapters, but then I trailed off. Then the book transitions to talking about other mathematical systems that are precursors to our current system. There's a lot more storytelling here and less math which I didn't mind. Finally, Reimer compares the different systems and claims Egypt comes up on top. I know he has strong feelings about the Egyptian system, which is why he wrote the book. I'm not entirely convinced of the superiority of the Egyptians, but I was entertained and taught some new things. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would love to see the author do some sort of series of books that are introductions to other mathematical systems as well.

[Hypatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this really interesting! I didn't take the time to work through all the problems he set, but it seems like Egyptian math could be really useful for some basic multiplication/division type problems. I plan to be the bane of all my son's math teachers when he gets older, and in a couple of years I'm going to work through the problems with him.