Ancient Egyptian Surveying

 As with everything Egyptian, I am shocked by the combination of how sophisticated their society was and how ignorant we are of their technologies. This article further revealed to me how deeply fundamental the Nile was to Egyptian technology – it is suggested here that it was the needs arising from the Nile’s unpredictable flooding that birthed some of the first formal methods of geometry (by needs, I am referring to the measuring and redistributing of lands)! The practical, authentic, understandable quality of these stories make them ripe for inspiring future students.

I am very impressed by the idea of the remen – it gives me further appreciation for the ratio that we so often take for granted. After some reflection, I’m a little surprised we don’t have our own special notation for √2. This is a concept that most modern people aren’t overly comfortable with, though I’m willing to bet that everyone in Egypt was fully capable of explaining the special meaning of a remen. Also, given that so much of Greek geometry was birthed from Egypt, I am curious as to how this unit was considered in the context of doubling the cube. Surely, they must have realized that the secrets to this problem were related to this common ratio.

Lastly, I have curiosity surrounding the ropes and knots used to measure long distances. The method of knot making must have been extremely precise – it is not a trivial question to determine how the length of a rope changes when you tie a knot in it. As such, they would have had to have a method for this that aligns precisely with the cubit. I would like to know how this was accomplished.