Question for Templeman

[Toglet]

In an answer to a recent question (now vanished) regarding the number seven, you wrote that the rhyme 'As I was going to St Ives' was reputed to be 3500 years old! I would be interested in your sources for that extraordinary date (1500 years pre-Roman occupation), or was it a typo, and an extra nought slipped in?

[templeman]

Here's one reference for you;
http://www.luckymojo.com/number7.html
and the quote; "Finally it postulates that the "St. Ives" problem (As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, etc) dates back over 3500 years, and can be traced to an Egyptian scribe. (This theory can be traced back, possibly more reliably, to one R. J. Gillingham, "Mathematics in the Time of the Pharaohs," MIT Press, 1972.)" ,
If you want more you'll find plenty by googling.

[Toglet]

Is it St Ives, Cornwall, or St Ives, Cambridgeshire? Are either in the Domesday Book?

[Cetti]

Toglet - There is a reference that states that an early mention of this riddle appeared on the Rhind papyrus in Egypt c1650 BC - no mention of St Ives, though, purely mathmatics.

[templeman]

Toglet, it's all about the mystical number 7 (which is what the original question is about). The origin of the riddle is in ancient Egyptian mathematics. I'm certain that the ancient Egyptians made no reference to St. Ives.
In our adaption of the riddle the actual place name has no significance other than to make it rhyme.

[Toglet]

Thank you - that's what was confusing me so badly! I was finding it very hard to believe that the ancient Egyptians would write anything about St Ives! I can believe a mathematical riddle could be "as old as the sands", but not a rhyme about an English place-name!

[Jacob]

Well 'ow do you explain that girt big pyramid in St Ives town centre then? Eh?? Oh, 'ang on...sorry, no, it's Cairo, beg puddin'. They are quite similar, though.