Talk:Egyptian division: Difference between revisions
→Number Systems: Good point – I would second a refocusing of the task description on deriving division from + and - without * / ^ etc
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==Number Systems==
The Egyptian number system essentially precludes multiplication and division, but they required both. They therefore designed methods that required only addition. I am willing to accept that n*2 is essentially equivalent to n+n but I must take exception to 'dbls.append(pwrs[-1] * divisor)' in the Python solution. They could not have multiplied by a variable like (say 34). As for exponentiation, well let's just say the Perl 6 is not Egyptian--[[User:Nigel Galloway|Nigel Galloway]] ([[User talk:Nigel Galloway|talk]]) 12:01, 11 August 2017 (UTC)
: This makes a nice point, and perhaps suggests a simpler and deeper formulation for the task description ? I've used it as a welcome excuse to delete the first of my 3 Haskell versions, which included an exponentiation operator.
: Given that 'Egyptian' algorithm is specifically a derivation of division from addition and subtraction, and assumes a dearth of more ambitious arithmetic operators, perhaps an edit (to that effect) to the task description – requiring parsimony in the set of arithmetic operators – no multiplication, division or exponentiation operators ? [[User:Hout|Hout]] ([[User talk:Hout|talk]]) 14:33, 11 August 2017 (UTC)
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