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| ==The Egyptian rope trick== | ==The Egyptian rope trick== | ||
| '''Rope stretchers''' used ] and the ],<ref></ref> which are still in use by modern surveyors |
'''Rope stretchers''' used ] and the ],<ref></ref> which are still in use by modern surveyors. | ||
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
Revision as of 02:43, 4 February 2018
In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher (or harpedonaptai) was a surveyor who measured real property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. When performed by a king to begin building a temple the stretching of the rope was probably a religious ceremony. On artefacts as ancient as the Scorpion Macehead, Egyptians documented the royal surveyors' procedure for restoring the boundaries of fields after each flood.
History
The first surveyors to use ropes and plumbs may have been Egyptian. Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and mathematics.
The Egyptian rope trick
Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet, which are still in use by modern surveyors.
See also
References
- Wilson, op.cit., p.38
- Breasted: From the Great Karnak Building Inscription (Year 24 of the reign of Thutmose III), op.cit. § 608
- Encyclopædia Britannica, op.cit., p.828
- Petrie Museum website: plumbs
- Alistair Macintosh Wilson, The Infinite in the Finite, Oxford University Press 1995
- The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica 1974
- James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, Chicago 1906
Further reading
- Joel F. PAULSON, "Surveying in Ancient Egypt,", FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16-21, 2005.
External links
- surveying instruments
- proportions "The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks"
- Sangaku and The Egyptian Triangle
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