The ancient Egyptians founded the earliest solar calendar in human history in 2787 BC. The formulation method is to set the day when Sirius and the sun rise on the horizon at the same time (when the Nile begins to flood) as the beginning of a year, with three seasons *** 12 months, 30 days per month, plus 5 days of year-end festivals * * * 365 days a year.
This calendar only has a difference of 1/4 days every year, which is the original basis of the Gregorian calendar in the world today. Because the Nile floods every year, it is necessary to re-measure and demarcate the land. After years of work, the ancient Egyptians did more practical exercises in geometry than any other nation at that time, and accumulated a lot of mathematical knowledge.
With the construction of water conservancy facilities, temples and pyramids, these mathematical knowledge has been applied and further enriched and developed. The ancient Egyptians used the counting system of 10 to calculate the area of rectangle, triangle, trapezoid and circle, as well as the volume of regular cylinder and truncated square cone.
They use pi = 3.1605. Algebraically, the ancient Egyptians could solve linear equations with one variable and some simple quadratic equations with one variable. This knowledge later became the basis for the ancient Greeks to develop mathematics.
2. Anatomy and Medicine
The ancient Egyptians believed that people could continue to live in another world after death, so they dissected the dead and painted them into mummies. As a result, they have accumulated a lot of knowledge about human physiology and anatomy, which is undoubtedly beneficial to their medical development. Doctors in ancient Egypt were able to perform surgical operations to treat eye diseases, toothache, diarrhea, lung diseases and many gynecological diseases.
They use all kinds of plants, animals and minerals to make medicines. Medicine in ancient Egypt was the most advanced in the world at that time, and this knowledge later had a great influence on western medicine through the ancient Greeks.
3. Handicraft technology
Egypt's handicraft industry has also developed to a considerable extent. As early as 2700 BC, the ancient Egyptians built 47-meter-long ships. The technology of making glass was invented in 1600 BC, and the manufacturing technology of pottery, linen fabric, leather, papyrus (used for writing) and jewelry also reached a high level.
Ancient Egyptians learned bronze smelting technology before and after the completion of 1500 BC, but copper resources were not rich. Iron was used late, and it was not until the 7th century BC that bronze was generally replaced.
4. Building technology
The most remarkable technological achievement in ancient Egypt in human history is the construction of huge pyramids and temples with stones that still exist today. The pyramids are the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs (kings).
The largest of the more than 70 existing pyramids is pyramid of khufu, which was built in 2600 BC. The tower height 146.5 meters, and the bottom is a square with a length of meters. It is made of polished boulders, each weighing an average of 2.5 tons and using about 2.3 million boulders. The stones were not bonded with plaster, and the joints were tight.
5, papyrus literature
Egyptian hieroglyphics became one of the earliest characters in the world. After writing, Egyptians learned to immerse reeds in smoke and ink mixed with glue and write on a kind of "papyrus", thus leaving the earliest papyrus literature in the world.
Extended data:
Ancient Egyptian civilization refers to the period from the first waterfall of the Nile to the delta, from the Tassa culture in 5000 BC to the Arab conquest of Egypt in 64 1 AD.
Experts actually explored the time range of ancient Egyptian culture, which was the first unification of the northern and southern kingdoms of Egypt in 3 100 BC. By 30 BC, the Roman Empire Octavian captured Egypt, Cleopatra VII committed suicide, the Ptolemaic Dynasty fell, and Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
That is, the Pharaoh dynasty with a history of more than 3 thousand years. Ancient Egyptian culture is one of the cradles of the four great civilizations of mankind, and it is also one of the sources of Arab culture.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Ancient Egyptian Civilization