Hemaka's constant

TL;DR

This paper explores how ancient Egyptian artifacts, specifically disks from Hemaka's tomb, can offer insights into early approximations of the mathematical constant pi through analysis of their dimensions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate ancient approximations of pi by analyzing the ratios of measurements on artifacts from Hemaka's tomb.

Findings

Disks suggest early approximations of pi close to 3.0

Measurements support the idea of practical, not exact, mathematical knowledge in ancient Egypt

Provides a new approach to studying historical mathematical understanding

Abstract

As proposed in a previous paper, the decorations of ancient objects can provide some information on the approximate evaluations of constant {\pi}, the ratio of circumference to diameter. Here we discuss some disks found in the tomb of Hemaka, the chancellor of a king of the First Dynasty of Egypt, about 3000 BC. The discussion is based on measurements of the dimensionless ratio of lengths.