Moscow Mathematical Papyrus

Moscow Mathematical Papyrus
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow
14th problem of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus (V. Struve, 1930)
Date	13th dynasty, Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
Place of origin	Thebes
Language(s)	Hieratic
Size	Length: 5.5 metres (18 ft) Width: 3.8 to 7.6 cm (1.5 to 3 in)

The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian mathematical papyrus, also called the Golenishchev Mathematical Papyrus, after its first owner outside of Egypt, Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev. Golenishchev bought the papyrus in 1892 or 1893 in Thebes. It later entered the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, where it remains today.

Based on the palaeography and orthography of the hieratic text, the text was most likely written down in the 13th dynasty and based on older material probably dating to the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt, roughly 1850 BC. Approximately 5½ m (18 ft) long and varying between 3.8 and 7.6 cm (1.5 and 3 in) wide, its format was divided into 25 problems with solutions by the Soviet Orientalist Vasily Vasilievich Struve in 1930. It is a well-known mathematical papyrus along with the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. The Moscow Mathematical Papyrus is older than the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, while the latter is the larger of the two.

The problems in the Moscow Papyrus follow no particular order, and the solutions of the problems provide much less detail than those in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. The papyrus is well known for some of its geometry problems. Problems 10 and 14 compute a surface area and the volume of a frustum respectively. The remaining problems are more common in nature.

Problems 2 and 3 are ship's part problems. One of the problems calculates the length of a ship's rudder and the other computes the length of a ship's mast given that it is 1/3 + 1/5 of the length of a cedar log originally 30 cubits long.