Comparison To Other Table Texts
An older ancient Egyptian papyrus contained a similar table of Egyptian fractions, the Lahun Mathematical Papyri, written around 1850 BCE is about the age of one unknown source for the Rhind papyrus. The Kahun 2/n fractions were identical to the fraction decompositions given in the Rhind Papyrus' 2/n table.
The Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll (EMLR), circa 1,900 BCE lists decompositions of fractions of the form 1/n into other unit fractions. The table consisted of 26 unit fraction series of the form 1/n written as sums of other rational numbers.
The Akhmim wooden tablet wrote fractions in the form 1/n in terms of sums of hekat rational numbers, 1/3, 1/7, 1/10, 1/11 and 1/13. In this document a two-part set of fractions were written in terms of Eye of Horus fractions which were fractions of the form and remainders expressed in terms of a unit called ro. The answers were checked by multiplying the initial divisor by the proposed solution and checking that the resulting answer was, which equals 1.
Read more about this topic: Rhind Mathematical Papyrus 2/n Table
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