d so forth-in the numbers to be added. Multiplication was based on successive doublings, and division was based on the inverse of this process (Berggren). The original of the oldest elaborate manuscript on mathematics was written in Egypt about 1825 BC. It was called the Ahmes treatise. The Ahmes manuscript was not written to be a textbook, but for use as a practical handbook. It contained material on linear equations of such types as x+1/7x=19 and dealt extensively on unit fractions. It also had a considerable amount of work on mensuration, the act, process, or art of measuring, and includes problems in elementary series (Smith 45-48). The Egyptians discovered hundreds of rules for the determination of areas and volumes, but they never showed how they established these rules or formulas. They also never showed how they arrived at their methods in dealing with specific values of the variable, but they nearly always proved that the numerical solution to the problem at hand was indeed correct for the particular value or values they had chosen. This constituted both method and proof. The Egyptians never stated formulas, but used examples to explain what they were talking about. If they found some exact method on how to do something, they never asked why it worked. They never sought to establish its universal truth by an argument that would show clearly and logically their thought processes. Instead, what they did was explain and define in an ordered sequence the steps necessary to do it again, and at the conclusion they added a verification or proof that the steps outlined did lead to a correct solution of the problem (Gillings 232-234). Maybe this is why the Egyptians were able to discover so many mathematical formulas. They never argued why something worked, they just believed it did. BIBLIOGRAPHY Berggren, J. Lennart. "Mathematics." Computer Software. Microsoft, Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. 1993-1996. CD- ROM. Dauben, Jo...
