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	Origin of Numbers

hitchhiker08

6-1-2008 6:01 AM

3167 views

tags:

numerals, numbers, hindu-arabic, roman, arabic, japanese, chines, counting

hitchhiker08 says:

More to it than just the Abacus!

2 Comments |

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6-1-2008 12:32 PM

gazco

wow... the development of languages is such an interesting thing, and I'd always wondered where numerals came from, since all cultures appear to use a decimal system! Good find!

6-1-2008 11:37 PM

hitchhiker08

Thanks gazco!

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/5ebb9380-fc10-4f82-b667-6ed03f1c6dcb/7F093DD2-96CD-481F-858C-F0BB33913B55/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals" href="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals" style="font-size: 11px;">www.euphoria-magazine.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><table background="undefined" bgcolor=""><tr><TD width="100%" class="contentheading">Origins of the Numerals			</TD></tr></table></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">Today's numbers, also called Hindu-Arabic numbers, are a combination of just 10 symbols or digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.euphoria-magazine.com/img/8689E857-9CFC-45FA-B3E8-6413F719CFCC" alt="Hindu Arabic Numbers" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><STRONG>Numerals, a time travel from India to Europe</STRONG></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><DIV>Before adopting the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, people used the Roman figures instead, which actually are a legacy of the Etruscan period. The Roman numeration is based on a biquinary (5) system.</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><P><IMG border="0" alt="Numbers Hands" src="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/images/stories/science/numeral_hends.gif" /> <BR /><EM><STRONG>The graphical origin of the Roman numbers</STRONG></EM></P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><div align="center"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.euphoria-magazine.com/img/1DE07275-7250-4529-A451-3F43D6470A40" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><H1>Other original systems of numeration<BR /></H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">Other original systems of numeration were being used in the past. The "Notae Elegantissimae" shown below allow to write numbers from 1 to 9999. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.euphoria-magazine.com/img/C3380CEB-FE55-44ED-9CCC-D0646B8839C9" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><H1>Chinese and Japanese contributions</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">The Ba-Gua (pron. pah-kwah) trigrams and the Genji-Koh patterns, antique Chinese  and Japanese symbols, </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">strangely enough related to mathematics and electronics. If all the entire lines of the trigrams (___) are replaced with the digit 1 and the broken lines (_ _) with the digit 0</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.euphoria-magazine.com/img/B5C8B3E8-206A-4AEF-82B6-2A3A516F01C0" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">Write "a", "b", "c", "d" and "e" under the five small red sticks </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals">Genji-Koh</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.euphoria-magazine.com/science/38-science/73-origins-of-the-numerals"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.euphoria-magazine.com/img/D8D45F0E-D12F-48F2-806E-076877115259" alt="" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/7F093DD2-96CD-481F-858C-F0BB33913B55/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>