Historical Quest
We mentioned that the Egyptians wrote their fractions as sums of unit fractions. Show that every positive fraction less than 1 can be written as a sum of unit fractions. Reference Bernhardt Wohlgemuth, “Egyptian Fractions,” … See the whole entry
Write a paper discussing the Egyptian method of multiplication.
References:
James Newman, The World of Mathematics, Vol. I (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956), pp. 170-178.
Howard Eves, Introduction to the History of Mathematics, … See the whole entry
Egyptian calculator:
http://homepage.isomedia.com/~mjohns/calc.htm
Roman numeral calculator:
http://www.novaroma.org/via_romana/numbers.html
Cuneiform calculator:
https://www.dcode.fr/babylonian-numbers
Links to information on numeration systems:
http://mathforum.org/alejandre/numerals.html… See the whole entry
Problems 1-8
These discussion problems are designed to make sure you understand the basic ideas of a numeration system. Remember, the particular systems are not as important as the ideas and properties of numeration systems.
Problems 9-13
See Example 1. … See the whole entry