Eye of Horus Fractions

Eye of Horus

Horus, represented as the falcon-headed god, was an important god in Egyptian legend. The symbol representing his eye, Eye of Horus, was a powerful symbol used to protect from evil. Pronounced "udjat" by the Egyptians, the Eye of Horus represents a human eye with the cheek markings of a falcon.

	Separated sections with fraction values

The 'Rx' symbol which is used by pharmacies and in medicine has its origins in the Eye of Horus.

The Eye of Horus fraction system was based on the Eye of Horus symbol. This system was used to record prescriptions, land and grain.

Fractions are created by combining sections of the Eye of Horus symbol. Each section has a different value. The complete Eye of Horus with all parts in place has a value of 1. In reality the complete Eye of Horus represents 63/64, which is rounded off to 1.

The system is based on halves. Half of 1 equals 1/2, half of 1/2 equals 1/4 and so on until the smallest value of 1/64. By adding together the values of different sections fractions are created.

EXAMPLE

to represent the fraction 5/8 we would need to combine 1/2 (4/8) and 1/8 5/8