Africans Invented Arithmetic and Algebra [double bagger barf alert]

Black Voice News ^ | Sunday, 27 August 2006 | Joseph A. Bailey, II M.D., F.A.C.S.

[SunkenCiv]

The earliest treatise on algebra is the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus (c.1700 BC). But in c.3000 BC Egyptians called it "aha Calculus" because "Aha," "Ahe," or "Ahau" was the name of the second pharaoh of the first dynasty. Meaning mass, quantity, or heap (a pile of many things), it was used as an abstract term for the unknown in an equation. Originally, the word "algebra"-("al" "from Egypt"--"al-Kemit")--meant the reuniting of broken parts and was later defined by the Arabs as "restoration", including "bone setting". Note that Yin and Yang are also about the union of separate parts... Africans found a place for arithmetic and algebra during their on-going activities on such vast construction projects-- as in building temples, pyramids, irrigation works, and obelisks.

[SunkenCiv]

This one was too funny not to post. I'll bet those pesky Greeks stole all this from the Great Library of Alexandria. [rimshot!] "Gebra" isn't "Kemet". The author doesn't mention how the word "calculus" (a branch of mathematics not discovered until a few centuries ago) wound up in 3000 BC, in Egypt.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Dilbert San Diego]

So does this help anyone's self-esteem to know this fact?

[ClearCase_guy]

But in c.3000 BC Egyptians called it "aha Calculus"

Fo snizzle.

[dead]

When I read this, my brain automatically converts it into Farrakhan voice.

I love it when my brain does that.

[johnny7]

“Play dat' funky music!”

[colorado tanker]

Well, I suppose Newton might have said "aha!" when the apple fell, but I sure didn't know he was Egyptian and lived nearly 5,000 years.

[SeanOGuano]

I was taught that Sir Issac Newton developed Calculus.

[weegee]

Africans found a place for arithmetic and algebra during their on-going activities on such vast construction projects-- as in building temples, pyramids, irrigation works, and obelisks.

Ahem, the ALIENS helped the Egyptians make those pyramids. < /sarc >

[chesley]

I wasted a month of my life in grad school by reading Black Athena by, Martin Bernal ??, I think it was.

I certainly couldn't follow it all, especially the linguistics parts, an area in which I have no knowledge. But those parts I could follow were 80-90% wrong in his assertions. His logical reasoning was faulty, too.

[Jaysun]

I don't get their point. Of course they're wrong, but if they were correct what would it say about Africa? Arithmetic and Algebra was supposedly invented in Africa and now look at it. The most desolate place on earth. This is also where the first human supposedly came from. Nonsense.

[ClearCase_guy]

Apparently, the Egyptians got there before Isaac. He did say, you know: "If I have seen further than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Egyptians." Or something like that.

I think it's interesting that the ancient Egyptians spoke Latin. Naming "aha calculus" after a pharoah is cool, but "calculus"?

calculus (1666), from L. calculus "reckoning, account," originally "pebble used in counting," dim. of calx (gen. calcis) "limestone." Modern mathematical sense is a shortening of differential calculus.

Those Egyptians were waaaaaay ahead of their time.

[Jaysun]

Ahem, the ALIENS helped the Egyptians make those pyramids

Good thing. They did such a shitty job at Stonehenge. Now they're reduced to smashing down corn and snatching me from my bed several nights a week.

[ApplegateRanch]

The ER doc once exclaimed, "Aha, calculus," when he found the cause of my horrid flank pain.

Strange, because he didn't look at all Egyptian.

[SunkenCiv]

a review of Volume II:

The World Turned Upside Down
EMILY VERMEULE
March 26, 1992
http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWarchdisplay.cgi?19920326040R

Not Out of Africa
by Mary Lefkowitz
Was Greek Culture Stolen from Africa?
Modern Myth vs. Ancient History
Excerpted from--
"Not Out of Africa:
How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History"
http://www.martinlutherking.org/not-out-africa.html

[SeanOGuano]

I was also taught that the Egyptians invented beer. However, I went to Beer Camp at the Oldenburg Brewery in Fort Mitchell, KY and they told us that the Mesopotamians invented it.

[SunkenCiv]

... and then half the class stood up and shouted "tastes great!"...

[randog]

But in c.3000 BC Egyptians called it "aha Calculus"

Imagine that--ancient Egyptians were speaking Latin. I suppose they invented that, too...?

[GoLightly]

Those who can't do seem to spend a lot of time dreaming things up about the way those who do, do what they do. Using "educated" intuition is an art, which is why apprenticeships instead of or in addition to "book learning" is important in some fields of human endeavor.

For example, take your basic freshly minted I-beam. It will be bowed, twisted & it will have some kinks. A skilled craftsman will know where to apply the right amount of heat to straighten it. A good eye can beat complicated calculations.

[weegee]

Well having mastered architecture and agri-art, they have now moved onto studying proctology.