ABSTRACT
The fact is that, despite their notation, the scribes were adept at solving arithmetic problems and were in fact quite skillful in devising ingenious methods of attack on algebraic and geometric problems as well, so that their successors remained content with what came down to them. Historians of Egyptian mathematics have seldom committed themselves regarding the methods of addition and subtraction employed by the Egyptian scribes; they mostly take for granted the scribes’ ability to add or subtract fairly large numbers. In multiplying and dividing fractions, the scribes used the same setting out as they did for integers, but they needed to use various techniques for the different problems that arose. The Greeks may also have taken from the Egyptians the rules for the determination of areas and volumes.
