In ancient Egypt, a flood caused by the Nile River destroyed the boundaries of individual fields every year. Farmers had to find a way to divide the fields, so that each of them received the same amount of land as they have before the floods. How did they measure it?
The life of the ancient Egyptians was centered around the Nile river. With each flood the soil received minerals that improved its quality. However, after the flood, it was very difficult to determine the landowner.
They realized that a rope can be used to measure the area of each plot. Thanks to the knots tied at the same distance from each other (units), the rope served as today’s tape measure.
Three people stretched the rope in the shape of a right triangle. Then they measured the number of triangles on the farmer’s property, and recorded the value. After the flood, the land was measured again.
The triangle was right, with one side formed by three units, the other four units, and the other five units.
The ancient Egyptians knew that in order to calculate the content of a triangle, they had to multiply the length of the base by the height and divide the result by 2. If each length was 1 unit, then:
Area of triangle = 4 * 3 / 2 = 6 units2
Then they could link as many triangles as needed to find out how much land each farmer owned before the flood. Each triangle had a content of 6 units squared.
Use of ramps at the Pyramid of Cheops. How could the Egyptians lift the stone blocks to a height of up to 150 meters?
The biggest mystery of the Pyramid of Cheops remains its construction. There is no record of it, but some clues allow us to present a certain theory. We know that the Egyptians used the mud from the Nile to „lubricate“ the ramps. The ramps were not very steep (maximum 9 degrees, otherwise they would be too steep for climbing) and were utilized to pull the largest blocks used at the bottom of the pyramid.
Gauges used in the past
- Leveling device for horizontal surfaces
- Protractor
- Bar, 3 elbows long (approx. 1.5 m)
- Plumb line for vertical control