Babylonian numerals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also: Babylonian mathematics

Babylonian numerals

Babylonian numerals were written in cuneiform, using a wedge-tipped reed stylus to make a mark
on a soft clay tablet which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create a permanent record.
The Babylonians, who were famous for their astronomical observations and calculations (aided by
their invention of the abacus), used asexagesimal (base-60) positional numeral system inherited
from either the Sumerian or the Eblaite civilizations.[1] Neither of the predecessors was a positional
system (having a convention for which end of the numeral represented the units).
Contents
[hide]

1 Origin

2 Characters

3 Numerals

4 See also

5 Notes

6 Bibliography

7 External links

Origin[edit]
This system first appeared around 2000 BC;[1] its structure reflects the decimal lexical numerals
of Semitic languages rather than Sumerian lexical numbers.[2] However, the use of a special

Sumerian sign for 60 (beside two Semitic signs for the same number) [1] attests to a relation with the
Sumerian system.[2]

Numeral systems

HinduArabic numeral system

Hindu-Arabic

Arabic-Indic

Indian

Gurkmukhi

Bengali

Sinhala

Tamil
Burmese

Khmer

Lao
Mongolian

Thai

Balinese

Javanese

Dzongkha
East Asian

Chinese

Suzhou

Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

Counting rods
Alphabetic

Abjad

Armenian

ryabhat a

Cyrillic

Ge'ez

Georgian

Greek

Hebrew

Roman
Former

Aegean

Attic

Babylonian

Brahmi

Egyptian

Etruscan

Inuit

Kharosthi

Mayan

Quipu

Prehistoric
Positional systems by base

10

12

16

20

60

Non-standard positional numeral systems

Bijective numeration (1)

Signed-digit representation (Balanced ternary)

factorial

negative

Complex base systems(2i)

Non-integer representation ()

mixed
List of numeral systems

Characters[edit]
The Babylonian system is credited as being the first known positional numeral system, in which the
value of a particular digit depends both on the digit itself and its position within the number. This was
an extremely important development, because non-place-value systems require unique symbols to
represent each power of a base (ten, one hundred, one thousand, and so forth), making calculations
difficult.
Only two symbols (
to count units and
to count tens) were used to notate the 59 nonzero digits. These symbols and their values were combined to form a digit in asign-value
notation quite similar to that of Roman numerals; for example, the combination
represented
the digit for 23 (see table of digits below). A space was left to indicate a place without value, similar
to the modern-day zero. Babylonians later devised a sign to represent this empty place. They lacked
a symbol to serve the function of radix point, so the place of the units had to be inferred from
context :

could have represented 23 or 2360 or 236060 or 23/60, etc.

Their system clearly used internal decimal to represent digits, but it was not really a mixedradix system of bases 10 and 6, since the ten sub-base was used merely to facilitate the
representation of the large set of digits needed, while the place-values in a digit string were
consistently 60-based and the arithmetic needed to work with these digit strings was correspondingly
sexagesimal.
The legacy of sexagesimal still survives to this day, in the form of degrees (360 in a circle or 60 in
an angle of an equilateral triangle), minutes, and seconds intrigonometry and the measurement
of time, although both of these systems are actually mixed radix. [3]
A common theory is that 60, a superior highly composite number (the previous and next in the series
being 12 and 120), was chosen due to its prime factorization: 2235, which makes it divisible
by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. Integers and fractions were represented identically a
radix point was not written but rather made clear by context.

Numerals[edit]
The Babylonians did not technically have a digit for, nor a concept of, the number zero. Although
they understood the idea of nothingness, it was not seen as a numbermerely the lack of a number.
What the Babylonians had instead was a space (and later a disambiguating placeholder
symbol

) to mark the nonexistence of a digit in a certain place value. [citation needed]

The Babylonian civilisation in Mesopotamia replaced the Sumerian civilisation and

the Akkadian civilisation. We give a little historical background to these events in our
article Babylonian mathematics. Certainly in terms of their number system the
Babylonians inherited ideas from the Sumerians and from the Akkadians. From the
number systems of these earlier peoples came the base of 60, that is the sexagesimal
system. Yet neither the Sumerian nor the Akkadian system was a positional system
and this advance by the Babylonians was undoubtedly their greatest achievement in
terms of developing the number system. Some would argue that it was their biggest
achievement in mathematics.
Often when told that the Babylonian number system was base 60 people's first
reaction is: what a lot of special number symbols they must have had to learn. Now of
course this comment is based on knowledge of our own decimal system which is a
positional system with nine special symbols and a zero symbol to denote an empty
place. However, rather than have to learn 10 symbols as we do to use our decimal
numbers, the Babylonians only had to learn two symbols to produce their base 60
positional system.
Now although the Babylonian system was a positional base 60 system, it had some
vestiges of a base 10 system within it. This is because the 59 numbers, which go into
one of the places of the system, were built from a 'unit' symbol and a 'ten' symbol.

Here are the 59 symbols built from these two symbols

Now given a positional system one needs a convention concerning which end of the
number represents the units. For example the decimal 12345 represents
1 104 + 2 103 + 3 102 + 4 10 + 5.
If one thinks about it this is perhaps illogical for we read from left to right so when we
read the first digit we do not know its value until we have read the complete number
to find out how many powers of 10 are associated with this first place. The
Babylonian sexagesimal positional system places numbers with the same convention,
so the right most position is for the units up to 59, the position one to the left is for 60
n where 1 n 59, etc. Now we adopt a notation where we separate the numerals
by commas so, for example, 1,57,46,40 represents the sexagesimal number
1 603 + 57 602 + 46 60 + 40
which, in decimal notation is 424000.

Here is 1,57,46,40 in Babylonian

numerals

Now there is a potential problem with the system. Since two is represented by two
characters each representing one unit, and 61 is represented by the one character for a
unit in the first place and a second identical character for a unit in the second place
then the Babylonian sexagesimal numbers 1,1 and 2 have essentially the same
representation. However, this was not really a problem since the spacing of the
characters allowed one to tell the difference. In the symbol for 2 the two characters
representing the unit touch each other and become a single symbol. In the number 1,1
there is a space between them.
A much more serious problem was the fact that there was no zero to put into an empty
position. The numbers sexagesimal numbers 1 and 1,0, namely 1 and 60 in decimals,
had exactly the same representation and now there was no way that spacing could
help. The context made it clear, and in fact despite this appearing very unsatisfactory,
it could not have been found so by the Babylonians. How do we know this? Well if
they had really found that the system presented them with real ambiguities they would
have solved the problem - there is little doubt that they had the skills to come up with
a solution had the system been unworkable. Perhaps we should mention here that later
Babylonian civilisations did invent a symbol to indicate an empty place so the lack of
a zero could not have been totally satisfactory to them.
An empty place in the middle of a number likewise gave them problems. Although not
a very serious comment, perhaps it is worth remarking that if we assume that all our
decimal digits are equally likely in a number then there is a one in ten chance of an
empty place while for the Babylonians with their sexagesimal system there was a one
in sixty chance. Returning to empty places in the middle of numbers we can look at
actual examples where this happens.

Here is an example from a cuneiform tablet (actually AO 17264 in the Louvre

collection in Paris) in which the calculation to square 147 is carried out. In
sexagesimal 147 = 2,27 and squaring gives the number 21609 = 6,0,9.

Here is the Babylonian example of 2,27 squared

Perhaps the scribe left a little more space than usual between the 6 and the 9 than he
would have done had he been representing 6,9.

Maya numerals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maya numerals

Numeral systems

HinduArabic numeral system

Hindu-Arabic

Arabic-Indic

Indian

Gurkmukhi

Bengali

Sinhala

Tamil

Burmese

Khmer

Lao

Mongolian

Thai

Balinese

Javanese

Dzongkha
East Asian

Chinese

Suzhou

Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

Counting rods
Alphabetic

Abjad

Armenian

ryabhat a

Cyrillic

Ge'ez

Georgian

Greek

Hebrew

Roman
Former

Aegean

Attic

Babylonian

Brahmi

Egyptian

Etruscan

Inuit

Kharosthi

Mayan

Quipu

Prehistoric
Positional systems by base

10

12

16

20

60

Non-standard positional numeral systems

Bijective numeration (1)

Signed-digit representation (Balanced ternary)

factorial

negative
Complex base systems(2i)
Non-integer representation ()

mixed
List of numeral systems

The Maya numeral system is a vigesimal (base-twenty) positional numeral system used by the PreColumbian Maya civilization.
The numerals are made up of three symbols; zero (shell shape, with
the plastron uppermost), one (a dot) and five (a bar). For example, thirteen is written as three dots in
a horizontal row above two horizontal lines stacked above each other.
Contents
[hide]

1 Numbers above 19

2 Zero

3 In the calendar

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

400s

20s

1s
33

429

5125

Numbers above 19[edit]

Numbers after 19 were written vertically in powers of twenty. For example, thirty-three would be
written as one dot above three dots, which are in turn atop two lines. The first dot represents "one
twenty" or "120", which is added to three dots and two bars, or thirteen. Therefore, (120) + 13 =
33. Upon reaching 202 or 400, another row is started. The number 429 would be written as one dot

above one dot above four dots and a bar, or (1202) + (1201) + 9 = 429. The powers of twenty
are numerals, just as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system uses powers of tens.[1]
Other than the bar and dot notation, Maya numerals can be illustrated by face type glyphs or
pictures. The face glyph for a number represents the deity associated with the number. These face
number glyphs were rarely used, and are mostly seen on some of the most elaborate monumental
carving.
Addition and subtraction: Adding and subtracting numbers below 20 using Maya numerals is very
simple. Addition is performed by combining the numeric symbols at each level:

If five or more dots result from the combination, five dots are removed and replaced by a bar. If four
or more bars result, four bars are removed and a dot is added to the next higher row.
Similarly with subtraction, remove the elements of the subtrahend symbol from the minuend symbol:

If there are not enough dots in a minuend position, a bar is replaced by five dots. If there are not
enough bars, a dot is removed from the next higher minuend symbol in the column and four bars are
added to the minuend symbol which is being worked on.

The Mayan system is interesting as they developed it without any contact with
the other systems on this website. It is similar to the Babylonians but the
Mayans chose different numbers as their bases. They used dots to represent
numbers under five, so four is four dots. Five is represented by a line. So six
is a line and a dot, and seven is a line and two dots, and thirteen is two lines
and three dots. This is a unary system, but using five as a base rather than
the more common ten.
1 2

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

This works up to nineteen, but rather than twenty being four lines, they started
a new count above the first one. Zero is represented by a shell. So twenty is a
single dot above a shell. This stacking of numbers rather than having them in
a line is a little disconcerting at first! You have to talk about rows rather than
columns. This second system, for counting the twenties and powers of twenty,
is positional, and even has a zero, to show that you have no digit in this row.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

To calculate a Mayan number, you need to divide the number into powers of
twenty.

5124 = 12 x 20 x 20 + 16 x 20 + 4 =

The great advantage of the positional system is that you need only a limited
number of symbols (the Mayans only had two, plus their symbol for zero) and
you can represent any whole number, however big. The Mayans had a
sophisticated number system, but a little complex. Presumably the Mayans
chose five and twenty as the two bases of their system as there are five
fingers on one hand, and twenty fingers and toes on one person. Although we
think of other systems using base ten, in fact the Romans had almost a base
five within their base ten, as they had separate symbols for five, fifty, and five
hundred. An eastern abacus has beads for five as well as beads for units. It
makes sense, as it is hard to instantly recognise groups of symbols more than
five. Some peoples, like theBabylonians arranged them into neat patterns to
make it easier, but then it became harder to draw. The Mayan system is quick
to write, and simple to understand. However, multiplication tables need to be
learned up to twenty, rather than just ten!

rom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Latin numerals" redirects here. For counting in Latin, see Latin Numbers.

Numeral systems

HinduArabic numeral system

Hindu-Arabic

Arabic-Indic

Indian

Gurkmukhi

Bengali

Sinhala

Tamil

Burmese

Khmer

Lao

Mongolian

Thai

Balinese

Javanese

Dzongkha
East Asian

Chinese

Suzhou

Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

Counting rods
Alphabetic

Abjad

Armenian

ryabhat a

Cyrillic

Ge'ez

Georgian

Greek

Hebrew

Roman
Former

Aegean

Attic

Babylonian

Brahmi

Egyptian

Etruscan

Inuit

Kharosthi

Mayan

Quipu

Prehistoric
Positional systems by base

10

12

16

20

60

Non-standard positional numeral systems

Bijective numeration (1)

Signed-digit representation (Balanced ternary)

factorial

negative
Complex base systems(2i)
Non-integer representation ()

mixed
List of numeral systems

Entrance to section LII (52) of the Colosseum, with numerals still visible

Roman numerals, the numeric system used in ancient Rome, employs combinations of letters from the Latin
alphabet to signify values. The numbers 1 to 10 can be expressed in Roman numerals as follows:

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.

The Roman numeral system is a cousin of Etruscan numerals. Use of Roman numerals continued after the
decline of the Roman Empire. From the 14th century on, Roman numerals began to be replaced in most
contexts by more convenient Hindu-Arabic numerals; however, this process was gradual, and the use of Roman
numerals in some minor applications continues to this day.

Roman numeric system

Roman numerals, as used today, are based on seven symbols:[1]

Symbol

Value

10

50

100

500

1,000

Numbers are formed by combining symbols and adding the values, so II is two (two ones) and XIII is thirteen (a ten
and three ones). There is no zero in this system and characters do not represent tens, hundreds and so on according
to position as in 207 or 1066; those numbers are written as CCVII (two hundreds, a five and two ones)
and MLXVI (a thousand, a fifty, a ten, a five and a one).
Symbols are placed from left to right in order of value, starting with the largest. However, in a few specific cases,[2] to
avoid four characters being repeated in succession (such as IIII or XXXX), subtractive notationis often used as
follows:[3][4]

I placed before V or X indicates one less, so four is IV (one less than five) and nine is IX (one less than

ten)

X placed before L or C indicates ten less, so forty is XL (ten less than fifty) and ninety is XC (ten less than
a hundred)

C placed before D or M indicates a hundred less, so four hundred is CD (a hundred less than five hundred)
and nine hundred is CM (a hundred less than a thousand)
[5]

For example, MCMIV is one thousand nine hundred and four, 1904 (M is a thousand, CM is nine hundred
and IV is four).
Some examples of the modern use of Roman numerals include:

1954 as MCMLIV, as in the trailer for the movie The Last Time I Saw Paris)[6]

1990 as MCMXC, used as the title of musical project Enigma's debut album MCMXC a.D., named after
the year of its release.)

2014 as MMXIV, the year of the games of the XXII (22nd) Olympic Winter Games (in Sochi)