Roanoke Times: When the Nile delta flooded annually in ancient times, its rising waters destroyed rudimentary property markers and its receding waters deposited sediment, creating additional land. Both phenomena caused confusion and conflict among Egypts vital farmers. Consequently, the pharaohs scientists developed a primitive mathematical system for measuring dimensions of land, sparking the birth of geometry -- earth metrics, a Greek term later coined by Euclid circa 300 B.C. Four millennia later, the Nile...