EGYPTIAN SCIENCE 



a conception as ^, except in the crude form of -^ plus 

 -j^ plus fff. Their entire idea of division seems de- 

 fective. They viewed the subject from the more ele- 

 mentary stand -point of multiplication. Thus, in or- 

 der to find out how many times 7 is contained in 77, 

 an existing example shows that the numbers repre- 

 senting i times 7, 2 times 7, 4 times 7, 8 times 7 were 

 set down successively and various experimental ad- 

 ditions made to find out which sets of these numbers 

 aggregated 77. 



i 7 



2 14 



4 28 

 8 56 



A line before the first, second, and fourth of these num- 

 bers indicated that it is necessary to multiply 7 by 

 i plus 2 plus 8 that is, by n, in order to obtain 77; 

 that is to say, 7 goes n times in 77. All this seems 

 very cumbersome indeed, yet we must not overlook 

 the fact that the process which goes on in our own 

 minds in performing such a problem as this is precisely 

 similar, except that we have learned to slur over certain 

 of the intermediate steps with the aid of a memorized 

 multiplication table. In the last analysis, division is 

 only the obverse side of multiplication, and any one 

 who has not learned his multiplication table is reduced 

 to some such expedient as that of the Egyptian. In- 

 deed, whenever we pass beyond the range of our mem- 

 orized multiplication table which for most of us ends 

 with the twelves the experimental character of the 

 trial multiplication through which division is finally 

 effected does not so greatly differ from the experi- 



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