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Big Question: Who Invented Maths?

Some say the ancient Egyptians invented maths - you know, the people who built the pyramids, mummified their kings, and wore those funny hats.

Image of a Pharoah in mask

The Egyptians were certainly brilliant engineers and inventive thinkers. Their pyramids are mathematical marvels. In order to build them, the Egyptians invented a new number system, so they could write down big sums.

Image to represent the numbers used by the egyptians

1 is a single stroke, 2 is 2 single strokes... and so on until you reach 9.

10 is a horseshoe shape (it's actually a cattle-hobble, something farmers used to stop their cows running off!)

100 is a coil of rope (it looks a bit like the modern @ sign on an email address!)

1,000 is a lotus plant

10,000 is a finger

100,000 is a frog

And 1,000,000 is a god wearing a funny hat, with his arms raised up above his head.

Egyptian maths was colourful, but hard work.

There were three big problems:

1. You had to be good at drawing to do your maths. If your finger looked like a lotus flower, your sums could go horribly wrong. 2. To make a number like 32 you had to write: 10+10+10+2 (∩∩∩ll), which was a really boring way of going about things. 3. You could only multiply by adding a number to itself lots of times.

So did the Egyptians actually invent maths?

It's hard to say. Lots of ancient cultures came up with big ideas about numbers. They did it because they had to - they needed to build big structures and develop their cities. But you have to hand it to the Egyptians: they played a big part in creating the maths we know and love today. And they did it all wearing those funny hats!

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