Ancient Egyptian Multiplication

By Zevan | November 27, 2009
CLICK HERE TO COPY
Actionscript:
  1. egyptianMultiply(12, 99);
  2.  
  3. // trace(12 * 99) // test to make sure it works
  4.  
  5. /* outputs:
  6. /64 768
  7. /32 384
  8.  16 192
  9.  8 96
  10.  4 48
  11. /2 24
  12. /1 12
  13. ---
  14. 1188
  15. */
  16.  
  17.  
  18. function egyptianMultiply(valueA:Number, valueB:Number):void {
  19.    
  20.     var left:Array = [];
  21.     var right:Array = []
  22.    
  23.     // swap if valueB is smaller than value A
  24.     if (valueB <valueA){
  25.         var swap:int = valueB;
  26.         valueB = valueA;
  27.         valueA = swap;
  28.     }
  29.    
  30.     // create left and right columns
  31.     var currentLeft:int = 1;
  32.     var currentRight:int = valueA;
  33.    
  34.     while (currentLeft <valueB){
  35.         left.push(currentLeft);
  36.         right.push(currentRight);
  37.         currentRight += currentRight;
  38.         currentLeft += currentLeft;
  39.     }
  40.    
  41.    
  42.     // add up the right column based on the left
  43.     currentLeft = 0;
  44.     var rightSum:int;
  45.     var leftSum:int;
  46.     var i:int = left.length - 1;
  47.    
  48.     while (currentLeft != valueB){
  49.      
  50.       leftSum = currentLeft + left[i];
  51.       // if the next number causes the sum
  52.       // to go above valueB, skip it
  53.       if (leftSum <= valueB){
  54.         currentLeft = leftSum;
  55.         rightSum += right[i];
  56.         trace("/" + left[i]  + " " + right[i]);
  57.       } else {
  58.         trace(" " + left[i]  + " " + right[i]);
  59.       }
  60.       i--;
  61.     }
  62.     trace("---");
  63.     trace(rightSum);
  64. }

Someone mentioned egyptian multiplication to me yesterday... So read a little about it here and whipped up this example. For some reason I decided to do it in processing ... once it worked I ported it to ActionScript.

The above link describing the technique I used is from http://www.jimloy.com/... I haven't spent much time digging around the site, but it appears to have some pretty nice stuff on it...

If you're curious, here is the original processing version:

CLICK HERE TO COPY
JAVA:
  1. Vector left = new Vector();
  2. Vector right = new Vector();
  3.  
  4. int valueA = 10;
  5. int valueB = 8;
  6.  
  7. if (valueB <valueA){
  8.     int swap = valueB;
  9.     valueB = valueA;
  10.     valueA = swap;
  11. }
  12.  
  13. int currentLeft = 1;
  14. int currentRight = valueA;
  15. while (currentLeft <valueB){
  16.     left.add(currentLeft);
  17.     right.add(currentRight);
  18.     currentRight += currentRight;
  19.     currentLeft += currentLeft;
  20. }
  21.  
  22. currentLeft = 0;
  23.  
  24. int result = 0;
  25. int i = left.size() - 1;
  26. while (currentLeft != valueB){
  27.  
  28.   int temp = currentLeft + (Integer) left.get(i);
  29.   if (temp <= valueB){
  30.    
  31.     currentLeft = temp;
  32.     result += (Integer) right.get(i);
  33.     println("/" + left.get(i) + " " + right.get(i));
  34.   } else {
  35.     println(" " + left.get(i)  + " " + right.get(i));
  36.   }
  37.    
  38.   i--;
  39. }
  40. println("---");
  41. println(result);

After writing, this I took a look at the wikipedia entry... I also found myself on this short page about a scribe called Ahmes. (I recommend reading this if you are interested in PI)

This entry was posted in Math, misc and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

One Comment

  1. juan
    Posted December 12, 2009 at 3:39 am | Permalink

    please i need some tutorials withe mouse events

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*