[Yr7-10it] World's first spreadsheet

[Colin SUTTON]

Hi all

I'm on LSL and stumbled upon this yesterday at Karnak Temple in Luxor. (If
the attached photo doesn't show up in your browser email me and I'll send
you a copy.)

For those of you have told your students that Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston
( 2 bored students at Harvard) invented the spreadsheet (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc), here's proof they didn't, by
thousands of years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak).

The achievement is overshadowed somewhat by poor use of conventions (numbers
are centred) and those terrible blank rows AT THE TOP! Perhaps they intended
to graph the results, but time on the SAC beat them.

I did push the 'Display formulae" button, (bottom RH corner) and the classic
=SUM( ...  :  ...) appeared in the bottom row, but inexplicably I forgot to
photograph it!

Column A shows the names of the Pharaohs and the other columns their tribute
to the gods (n - 10 , I - 1), again poor convention use doesn't really make
clear the significance of these different columns.

For those politically interested, the Egyptians are excited about the
future, want their billions back and are VERY glad to see tourists (20% work
in tourism! - 80% in Luxor) and there just aren't any. Scores of Nile
Cruisers tied up in Luxor and Aswan. It's been great for me as none of the
sites have ANY crowds (It can take a 30 minute queue to get into Tut's room
at the Egyptian Museum - I went back about 5 times without any waiting). I
was GENUINELY thanked by some for coming and even interviewed in the street
(probably on Youtube, somewhere) about how I felt about things, especially
did I feel safe (YES).


Regards

COLIN
On LSL (pending retirement) Monty SC