Another look at the two Egyptian pyramid volume ‘formulas’ of 1850 BCE

Abstract

This paper provides some methodological, didactical, and historiographical reflections on Egyptian pyramid volume formulas, responding to suggestions by Paul Shutler from 2009. These suggestions partly reiterate a historically documented proof by the Chinese Liu Hui (third century CE), although Lui Hui’s contribution was apparently unknown to Shutler. The latter came forward, in addition, with intuitive arguments which might have been used by the Egyptians to convince themselves of the correctness of their formula for the volume of the full pyramid. In a broad sense, the reflections in this paper may contribute to the use of history in the mathematical classroom. As a cautionary note: The paper is an abridged version of a longer manuscript that contains detailed explanations and discussions of historical secondary sources. Since the paper is somewhat outside the usual canon of mathematics historiography, I have deposited the longer manuscript on .