HISTORY OF COMPUTER

ANCIENT HISTORY OF COMPUTING/COUNTING

NUMERAL SYSTEM

•A NUMERAL SYSTEM IS A WRITING SYSTEM FOR EXPRESSING NUMBERS, THAT IS, A MATHEMATICAL NOTATION FOR REPRESENTING NUMBERS OF A GIVEN SET, USING DIGITS OR OTHER SYMBOLS IN A CONSISTENT MANNER. WIKIPEDIA

BABYLONIAN NUMBER SYSTEM• THE BABYLONIAN NUMBER SYSTEM IS OLD. IT STARTED ABOUT 1900 BC TO 1800 BC BUT IT WAS DEVELOPED FROM A NUMBER SYSTEM BELONGING TO A MUCH OLDER CIVILISATION CALLED THE SUMERIANS. IT IS QUITE A COMPLICATED SYSTEM, BUT IT WAS USED BY OTHER CULTURES, SUCH AS THE GREEKS, AS IT HAD ADVANTAGES OVER THEIR OWN SYSTEMS. EVENTUALLY IT WAS REPLACED BY ARABIC NUMBERS.

Babylonian number converter

The Babylonians writing and number system was done using a stylus which they dug into a clay tablet.

MAYAN NUMBER SYSTEM

The Mayans developed a number system that was many centuries ahead of anyone else in terms of their ability to express large numbers. They invented the number zero, and using a symbol for zero and a system of dots for the numbers 1-4 and bars representing a value of 5, it was possible for them to express astronomically large numbers.

EGYPTIAN NUMBER SYSTEM

The number system of ancient Egypt was decimal in nature but did not make use of place value. As a result of this, they didn't have a symbol for zero. There were two kind of writing used in Egypt, hieroglyphics and demotic (hieratic)

HINDU ARABIC SYSTEMThe Hindu–Arabic numeral system or Hindu numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system, nowadays the most common symbolic representation of numbers in the world. It was invented between the 1st and 4th centuries by Indian mathematicians

ROMAN NUMBER SYSTEM

Roman numerals, the numeric system used in ancient Rome, employs combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet to signify values.

This numeral system were used in trade and simple calculations. But due to lack of convenient writing tools like pen and paper, these system were not used in computation, Instead, the Romans used the abacus. Those who were using the Hindu-Arabic System later found a way of manual calculation which is called ALGORITHM.

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.

There was a debate between supporters of the Roman Number system using the abacus and the Hindu-Arabic Number System using algorithm on which system was more efficient. The Hindu-Arabic System won, and in 18th century Europe no trace of the abacus was to be seen.