The History Of Mathematics: 2011

AS YOU CAN SEE THERE IS A LIST OF NUMBERS FROM 0 TO 10 THEN IT GOES TO 50 AND THEN 100. IN THE FIRST COLUMN THE
NUMBERS LOOK LIKE OUR NUMBERS TODAY. IF YOU THINK THAT IT IS OUR NUMBERS TODAY YOU ARE 100% CORRECT. BUT ARE YOU WONDERING WHY THE COLUMN SAYS
ARABIC NUMERALS? IT SAYS ARABIC NUMERAL BECAUSE OUR NUMERAL SYSTEM COMES FROM THE
ARABS. THEN IF YOU LOOK TO YOUR RIGHT YOU WILL SEE OTHER COLUMNS THAT SAY ROMAN, GREEK, EGYPTIAN, GRAVITY,
BABYLONIAN, CHINESE, AND MAYAN. THE ROMAN NUMBERS LOOK LIKE OUR ROMAN NUMERALS TODAY(HENCE THE NAME
ROMAN NUMERAL) THIS SYSTEM WAS MADE A VERY LONG TIME AGO IN ANCIENT ROME IN ITALY. THE GREEK NUMERAL SYSTEM
LOOKS LIKE OUR ALPHABET. WHY? THE ORIGINALGREEK ALPHABET SYMBOLS AND WORDS WERE USED TO DESCRIBE THE VALUE
OF SOMETHING. FOR EXAMPLE: THE SYMBOL THAT LOOKS LIKE "A" MEANS ALPHA, WHICH MEANS 1. THE EGYPTIAN AND
CHINESE NUMBERS LOOK A LOT ALIKE. BOTH ARE MOSTLY STRAIGHT LINES THAT CONSIDER THE VALUE OF SOMETHING. THE
BABYLONIAN NUMERAL SYSTEM DID NOT HAVE PATTERNS LIKE MOST OF THE OTHER ANCIENT NUMERAL SYSTEMS. THE WAY IT
LOOKS MIGHT BE ALITTLE CONFUSING TO US. FOR EXAMPLE: ANY NUMBER LESS THAN 10 HAD A WEDGE THAT IS POINTED
DOWN. IT REALLY HAS NO CONNECTION WITH OUR NUMERAL SYSTEM TODAY. GRAVITY IS ONE ANCIENT NUMERAL SYSTEM
THAT WE DO NOT HEAR A LOT ABOUT. GRAVITY GENERATED NUMBERS TAKE THE POSITIONAL SYSTEM AND EXTEND IT. I
REMEMBER READING THAT ONE MATHMATICIAN CALLED IT A "LINEAR PLACE-VALUE." THE MAYAN NUMERAL SYSTEM I FOUND
WAS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING SO I FOUND THIS GREAT WEBSITE THAT I WILL COPY AND PASTE . IT EXPLAINS A LOT
ABOUT THE MAYAN NUMERAL SYSTEM. HERE IT IS:

"The Mayan number system dates back to the fourth century and was approximately 1,000 years more advanced than the Europeans of that time. This system is unique to our current decimal system, which has a base 10, in that the Mayan's used a vigesimal system, which had a base 20. This system is believed to have been used because, since the Mayan's lived in such a warm climate and there was rarely a need to wear shoes, 20 was the total number of fingers and toes, thus making the system workable. Therefore two important markers in this system are 20, which relates to the fingers and toes, and five, which relates to the number of digits on one hand or foot.

The Mayan system used a combination of two symbols. A dot (.) was used to represent the units (one through four) and a dash (-) was used to represent five. It is thought that the Mayan's may have used an abacus because of the use of their symbols and, therefore, there may be a connection between the Japanese and certain American tribes (Ortenzi, 1964). The Mayan's wrote their numbers vertically as opposed to horizontally with the lowest denomination on the bottom. Their system was set up so that the first five place values were based on the multiples of 20. They were 1 (200), 20 (201), 400 (202), 8,000 (203), and 160,000 (204). In the Arabic form we use the place values of 1, 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000.

The Mayan's were also the first to symbolize the concept of nothing (or zero). The most common symbol was that of a shell ( ) but there were several other symbols (e.g. a head). It is interesting to learn that with all of the great mathematicians and scientists that were around in ancient Greece and Rome, it was the Mayan Indians who independently came up with this symbol which usually meant completion as opposed to zero or nothing.

It has been suggested that counters may have been used, such as grain or pebbles, to represent the units and a short stick or bean pod to represent the fives. Through this system the bars and dots could be easily added together as opposed to such number systems as the Romans but, unfortunately, nothing of this form of notation has remained except the number system that relates to the Mayan calendar.

For further study: The 360 day calendar also came from the Mayan's who actually used base 18 when dealing with the calendar. Each month contained 20 days with 18 months to a year. This left five days at the end of the year which was a month in itself that was filled with danger and bad luck. In this way, the Mayans had invented the 365 day calendar which revolved around the solar system."

AND THAT IS IT ON THE ANCIENT NUMERAL SYSTEM! ENJOY"

resources http://www.mat.wichita.edu/history/topics/num-sys.html#mayan