纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 017莱因德数学纸草书(4)

In short, the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus teaches you all you need to know for a dazzling administrative career.

莱因德纸草书能教会你应付繁忙的公务员生活所需的一切知识，

It's a crammer for the Civil Service exams around 1550 BC and, like self-help publications today that promise instant success, it has a wonderful title, written boldly in red on the front page:

几乎等于公元前一五五〇年的埃及公务员考试应试宝典。就像今天那些成功学 的书籍一样，它的标题也极富吸引力。首页上用粗体红字写着：

The correct method of reckoning, for grasping the meaning of things, and knowing everything-obscurities and all secrets.

通晓计算高招，掌握事物内涵，解开一切秘密与难题。

In other words: Buy me, and you can't go wrong.

通俗点说就是：所有你需要了解的数学知识都在这里，买了我，你就会成功。

The numeracy of the Egyptians, honed by works like the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, was widely admired across the ancient world. Plato, for example, urged the Greeks to copy the Egyptians, where…

在这样的教材训练下，埃及人的数学水平广受古代社会的推崇。如柏拉图就敦促希腊复制埃及模式，认为在埃及：

The teachers, by applying the rules and practices of arithmetic to play, prepare their pupils for the tasks of marshalling and leading armies and organising military expeditions and all together form them into persons more useful to themselves and to others and a great deal wider awake.

老师用游戏的方法让学生学习数学规则和运算，让他们做好担任将领，领导军队，组织军队远征的准备。以便让他们提升自我价值，造福他人，并拥有丰富的学识。

But if everybody agreed that training like this produced a formidable state machine, the question of what mathematics the Greeks actually did learn from the Egyptians, remains a matter of debate. Clive Rix, of the University of Leicester:

但即使大家都相信这种训练会制造出强大的国家机器,关于希腊人在数学方面从埃及人那里学到了什么,至今尚无足论。因为保存至今的埃及数学文献数量极少：其余大部分都已腐烂。

Well, the interesting thing is, that the traditional view has always been that the Greeks learned of their geometry from the Egyptians.

传统观点认为，希腊人的几何学是从埃及人那里学来的，

Greek writers such as Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, all refer to the outstanding skills of the Egyptians in geometry.

希罗多德、柏拉图和亚里士多德都提到过埃及人在几何学方面的惊人成就。