[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[RightWhale]

Calculus is nothing more than counting by making piles of stones. Very, very old. The abacus was originally a way of keeping the stones from getting lost by making them into beads and putting them on strings, later wires.

[Names Ash Housewares]

I invented Post-Its.

[Constitution Day]

Oh please.

I'm reading John Derbyshire's Unknown Quantity right now.
It's about the history of algebra; check it out if you can!

[Dustbunny]

Geeze !!!

Everyday someone somewhere attempts to rewrite history.

[VOA]

bump

[CobaltBlue]

Have you ever noticed how many GGG posts are about how white Europeans were first to do this, that, and the other?

Without a "barf alert"?

What is it about Afrocentrism that's barfier than Eurocentrism?

BTW, I have also read claims by Indians and Chinese that they invented algebra, etc. Is that barfy?

[Young Werther]

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!

The Atlantean's invented Algebra. While diving off the Bermuda Coast, next to the Triangle, I found the stone roadway of Atlantis. Carved on the cornerstone of this basalt infrastructure was the word:

Atlantis

Lane

Goes

East

Before

Arriving

It's a Road Map to Higher Learning!

[spyone]

Isaac Newton is having a temper tantrum somewhere right now.

[pissant]

Must be one of those affirmitive action black academics who wrote this.

[Gingersnap]

This is so unintentionally hilarious that I had to clamp my jaws shut to keep from braying with laughter. Read the whole thing (it's short).

Africans not only did not invent algebra, it's appallingly clear that some African Americans still cannot comprehend it.