"History is a wonderful thing, if only it was true"
-Tolstoy

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Knowing what is important

Interesting that the some 3000years ago, time-motion studies were underway
And, of course - measurement of beer

Ancient Egyptians’ Mathematical Ingenuity, Written on Papyrus - NYTimes.com:

"The Rhind papyrus contains geometry problems that compute the slopes of pyramids and the volume of various-shaped granaries. And the Moscow papyrus, from about 1850 B.C., has about 25 problems, including ways to measure ships’ parts and find the surface area of a hemisphere and the area of triangles. Especially interesting are problems that calculate how efficient a laborer was by how many logs he carried or how many sandals he could make and decorate. Or the problems that involve a pefsu, a unit measuring the strength or weakness of beer or bread based on how much grain is used to make it.

One problem calculates whether it’s right to exchange 100 loaves of 20-pefsu bread for 10 jugs of 4-pefsu malt-date beer. After a series of steps, the papyrus proclaims, according to one translation: “Behold! The beer quantity is found to be correct.”"

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