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pasper2 asked in Arts & HumanitiesHistory · 1 decade ago

The history of counting?

I'm interested in historical number systems.

Do different bases always contain a zero?

If historically people counted on their fingers (not thumbs) does this make it base 8 or base 9 as there would have had to have also been a zero?

In base 10 , a hundred and a thousand are significant numbers as it goes to 3 and 4 digits, what would have been the significant number in base 8 or 9?

In the battle of troy how many ships did the greeks launch(its a thousand in base 10) if as I believe they used base 8 or 9 ie the 1st 4 digit number.

I'm also going to post this in history but would appreciate some mathematical info on the different bases

3 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The Messopotamian number system, as stated uses base 12, by marking on clay tablets. One is nedoted by a single stroke. 3 is 3 strokes (Triangular tip of the stylus and a vertical line three times) 4 is just the three triangular bits and a single inverted triangular bit underneath. 6 is 2 rows of three triangular bits. O is 3 rows and 10 is a sideways triangular indentation.

    You are probably awair of the Roman system. The ability to use this system means that you need a certain understanding of Latin in order to understand that C stands for Century, etc.

    When we invaded the Holy Land for the Crusades we bought back the Arabic number system. This used zero, as well as the 1 - 9 system. They also employed decimals (rather than a point, a comma is used). It is for this reason that many calculations are carried out using right to left, rather than left to right methods.

    The Arabs did not invent this system, rather they bought if back from India, when they invaded the southern part of the continent. The original base 10 system, using zeros, therefore was originally written in Urdu.

    Fractions were first used by the Egyptians. However, these only employed 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. It was not until later fractions using 2/3 or 4/5 came into being.

    PIE, despite using a Greek letter was first discovered in China.

    The Greeks believed that the universe could be explained via Geometry.

    However, most counting systems were developed to help devise a viable callender. After all, unless you know when to plant your crops, you might only get one harvest, or find that your harvest suddenly encounters frosts long before it is ripe.

    Luck

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    It started in Mesopotamia where people counted finger segments on one hand which gives us base 12 .

    12 is a good number as it can be divided in many ways without needing fractions . This is why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day .

    Zero is a concept that was only realised much later .

  • 4 years ago

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