Page:The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Volume I.pdf/62

46 Egyptians have left two or three records, each giving the day and month when Sirius rose with the sun in a certain year of some king’s reign. The number of days difference in the calendar dates of two such records, multiplied by 4, will enable us to determine the number of years between the two events, but as the shifting of a day in four years amounts to a year in 1460 years, it may be necessary to add 1460 or a multiple of this number to get the length of the entire interval.

NOTE ABOUT WORDS FOR GRAIN AND OTHER KINDS OF FOOD—There are ten or twelve words used in the papyrus to denote some kind of grain or food. As I have translated them they are: