34 



A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



The main features of Egyptian mathematical science are then 

 as follows : about 2000 B.C. a well-developed use of whole numbers 

 and fractions ; a method of solving equations of the first degree 

 with one unknown quantity; an approximate method for find- 

 ing the circumference of a circle of given radius; approximate 

 methods for finding areas of isosceles triangles and trapezoids; 

 the rudiments of a theory of similar figures. 



REFERENCES FOR READING 



BALL. A Short History of Mathematics, Chapter I. GAJORI. A History of 

 Mathematics, pages 1-15. BERRY. A History of Astronomy, Chapter I. 

 DREYER. Planetary Systems, Introduction. Gow. History of Greek Mathe- 

 matics, Chapters I, II. 



,*t$ of the 



MAP OF THE WORLD BY HBCAT^JUS (517 B.C.) 

 (From Breasted's Ancient Times. Courtesy of Messrs. Ginn & Co.) 



Hecatseua, a geographer of Miletus, travelled widely, including a journey up the Nile, and 

 wrote a geography of the world. In this book, as in the Map . . . the Mediterranean Sea was 

 the centre and the lands about it were all those known to the author. . . . After the Unknown 

 Historian of the Hebrews [about 850 B.C.] he was the first historical writer of the early world. 



