Ancient Numerals

7/29/2019 Ancient Numerals

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Armenian Numbers :The Armenian number system is a historic numerals using the capital letters of the ancient

armenians.

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90

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900

1000

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3000

4000

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6000

7000

8000

9000

There is no special notation for zero. It is based on additive number system.


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Example:1998 = 1000 + 900 + 90 + 8 is represented as below:

This is a funny interesting part of maths. Enjoy it with Fun!

Indian Numbers :The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system. Many of the

countries adopted the Indian numerals.

Values 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

bengali

devanagari

gujarati

gurmukhi

kannada

malayalam

oriya

telugu

tamil


Babylonian Numbers :Babylonians were the first people to develop the written number system. Their number

system is based on Sexagesimal System. It appeared around 1900 BC to 1800 BC.The Babylonian number system had only two basic elements; l and < .

59 numbers are built from these two symbols.


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Example:For example, 1,45,29,36 represents the sexagesimal number

1 x 60 + 45 x 60 + 29 x 60 + 36

= 1 x 216000 + 45 x 3600 + 29 x 60 + 36= 216000 + 162000 + 1740 + 36

The decimal notation is 379776

1,45,29,36 in Babylonian Numerals

Babylonians did not have a digit for zero, instead they used a space to mark the nonexistence

of a digit in a certain place value.

Example:4,0,8 in Babylonian Numerals


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Khmer Numbers :The Khmer number system was used in Cambodia. It is similar to Thai numerals.

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1

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9


Chinese Numbers :The Chinese character numeral system is not a positional system. The Chinese system is

also a base-10 system.It contains two types of numerals, Simple and Complex.

Numbers Simple Complex


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Chinese Chinese

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1000

10000

Example:For example, 123 is represented as

Simple

Complex


Counting Rods Numbers :Counting Rods were used by the mathematicians in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. It


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was used by ancient chinese for more than 2000 years.

It represent digits by the number of rods.

Positive Numbers:

Value Vertical Horizontal

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7

8

9

Negative Numbers:

Value Vertical Horizontal

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9

It represent digits by the number of rods. Red rods represent positive numbers and black rods

represent negative numbers.

Examples:

123

1234

-567

-5678


Mayan Numbers :Mayan numerals were used in Central America, before 876 AD. The numerals consists of


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only three symbols, zero is represented as a shell shape, one as a dot and five as a bar.

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After the numbers 19, numerals were written in the vertical format in powers of twenty.

Example:433 is (1 x 400) + (1 x 20) + 13 = 433. It is represented as below:


Cyrillic Numbers :The Cyrillic number system was used in Russia, on 1700s. Their system was based on

Quasi-decimal. It is based on Ionic Number System.

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1000

Example:1999 is represented as below:


Egyptian Numbers :


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The Egyptians had a writing system based on hieroglyphs from around 3000 BC.

Hieroglyphs are represented in pictures. The Egyptians had a bases 10 system of hieroglyphs

for numerals.

They have separate symbols for one unit, one ten, one hundred, one thousand, one ten

thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million.

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3


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4

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9

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1000

10000

100000


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1000000

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+

-

Numeric Description:

Symbols Descripton

Symbol from 1 - 9 Single Strokes

Symbol for 10 Cattle Hobble or Yoke

Symbol for 100 Coil of Rope

Symbol for 1000Water Lily(also called Lotus

Flower)

Symbol for 10000 Finger

Symbol for 100000 Tadpole or Frog

Symbol for 1000000Egyptian Man with both hands

raised

Symbol for indicatingFraction

Mouth(Part)


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Symbol for Plus and Minus Feet pointed into the direction

Example:4568 is represented as the below one:


Greek Numbers :The Greeks had two number systems. First is the Acrophonic or Herodian or Attic

numerals. This numerals were used by the ancient Greeks. Second is the Milesian,Alexandrian, Ionic, or Alphabetic numerals.

Numbers Acrophonic Greek Alphabetic Greek

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8

9

10


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The Greek numeric system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values of

the letters are added together to form the total.

Example:

4567 corresponds to 4000 + 500 + 60 + 7 = 4567. It is represented as below:

Acrophonic Greek

Alphabetic Greek


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Sumerian Numbers :As the history told, the sumerians might have been invented their writing during 4th to 2nd

millennia BC. Their number systems was a base 60 or sexagesimal system.

The sumerian number system consists only two numerals, the one and ten. Their place valuesystem is read from the right, increased by a factor of 60.

1

10

Example:The below example will help you to know the Arabic(base ten) number represented in

sumerian:

The above example is represented as:

10 + 1 + 1 1 + 1 + 1 10

12 x 602

3 x 601

10 x 600

12 x 3600 + 3 x 60 + 1043200 + 180 + 10 = 43390

The main drawback of the sumerian number system is the way to represent zero is not

mentioned.

Example:The below example cannot be identified what kind of representation it makes, whether 342,

3420, 3402, or any other number variation, somehow it will intend to have some meaning

from the context.



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Hebrew Numbers :Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system. The numeric values for

individual letters are added together.Each units, tens, hundreds are assigned in a separate letter.

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The Hebrew numeric system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values ofthe letters are added together to form the total.

Example:

249 corresponds to 200 + 40 + 9 = 249. It is represented as below:

Urnfield Numbers :Urnfield culture was around 1200 BC. They followed quinary number system, that is base

five.

The numbers form 1 to 29 were found.1 /

2 //

3 ///

4 ////

16 /\\\

17 //\\\

18 ///\\\

19 ////\\\


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5 \

6 /\

7 //\

8 ///\

9 ////\

10 \\

11 /\\

12 //\\

13 ///\\

14 ////\\

15 \\\

20 \\\\

21 /\\\\

22 //\\\\

23 ///\\\\

24 ////\\\\

25 \\\\\

26 /\\\\\

27 //\\\\\

28 ///\\\\\

29 ////\\\\\

The units digit are represented with a stroke from the top-right to the bottom-left '/' and the

fifths place with a stroke from the top-left to the bottom-right '\'. Only till numeral 29 were tobe found.


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Ancient Numerals