The first known maths author

CAN YOU SOLVE IT:
You have to divide 100 loaves between 5 men in such a way that the shares received shall be in arithmetical progression. And that 1/7 of the sum of the largest 3 shares shall be equal to the sum of the smallest 2. What is the difference of the shares?

CORRECTIONS
- None yet, let me know if you spot anything!

Filming by Alex Genn-Bash
Editing by Gus Melton
Written and performed by Matt Parker
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician

[darchdk]

The original brown paper from numberphiles

[johnbyrne]

Has anyone tried turning it over? There should be solutions for the odd numbered problems on the back.

[dbob]

"Because it is a mathematical text they abbreviate a lot" I see very little has changed

[gustavgans]

Somewhere on this papyrus there's a note saying "the proof is trivial and left as an exercise to the reader"

[phoenixbrothers]

The phase "which reveals all secrets" seams to me to just be "solutions manual". But it does go so much harder

[michaelpeeler]

“Calculating Pi by Translating Hieroglyphics”

[hellohi]

If anyone’s curious, the amount of loaves each of the 5 partitions would get would be:
1) 1 and 2/3
2) 10 and 5/6
3) 20
4) 29 and 1/6
5) 38 and 1/3

The arithmetic interval is 55/6, which in practical terms is 9 and 1/6 loaves. The smallest partition is 5/3 or 1 and 2/3 loaves.

This can be found by solving this system of equations, with x representing the smallest partition and y representing the arithmetic interval:
1) x + (x+y) + (x+2y) + (x+3y) + (x+4y) = 100

2) x + (x+y) = 1/7((x+2y) + (x+3y) + (x+4y))

[yoavshati]

It's nice that 4:3 is an old aspect ratio, 16:9 is its square and is a newer aspect ratio, and squaring it again gives an old approximation of pi

[anomalousresult]

Not sure if it's me getting older, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by this. We talk of touched by the hand of the artist, but to have a 3000 year old text of anything, let alone a maths text is amazing. Thank you for finding and sharing this.

[Kris_not_Chris]

I love that the whole description with dividing loaves in specific ways sounds exactly like Highschool math word problems

[EGraf]

As an Egyptologist, this video is really exiting! this is a very famous papyrus, what a treat you could see it

[loganstrong]

Friendship ended with 22/7, now 256/81 is my best friend.

[HunterJE]

How do you say "Could I get more paper, Brady?" in ancient Egyptian?

[you]

The title saying "the last" maths author implies there will be some apocalyptic cataclysm when Matt's book is released. Maybe "the latest" would have been less grim.

[lazykbys]

1:50 "I think I can probably decipher the maths but I have no idea what the hieroglyphics are saying."
This from the man who said that he can't read French, but maths is maths . . .

[ChrisRWitt]

I can't help but think what an equally distant mathematician from the future would say about our textbooks.

"As you can see here, solving for the number of watermelons was an important practical problem in their day to day life, as one person could easily eat 100 of them."

[Oaisus]

Live translation is wild. I always thought people decoded what each part meant and slowly worked through it like a puzzle.

[fgbpeiazijhn]

I wonder how he would have felt, had he known that 3500 years later, 2 people in a land he barely even knew existed if at all, were pouring over his math tests.

[victoriaeads]

There are multiple layers of nerdiness in this video, and I'm ALL IN! 😂😂❤❤❤

[kurohone]

Get a hold of Max Miller from Tasting History, find a papyrus, and bake bread using Egyptian proportions while talking about math and history. I can't think of much more I would want to see than that.