Egyptian Fractions Revisited

Authors

Olga Kosheleva, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow

Publication Date

2-2009

Comments

UTEP-CS-05-01a.

Published in Informatics in Education, 2009, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 35-48.

Abstract

It is well known that the ancient Egyptians represented each fraction as a sum of unit fractions -- i.e., fractions with unit numerators; this is how they, e.g., divided loaves of bread. What is not clear is why they used this representation. In this paper, we propose a new explanation: crudely speaking, that the main idea behind the Egyptian fractions provides an optimal way of dividing the loaves. We also analyze the related properties of fractions.