In Superhistory we have already seen some numbers that in fact are considered to be among the first numerical manifestations, as is the case of Arabic numbers or Phoenician numbers, which were also the inventors of the alphabet, so we now want to give you an extensive summary of the history of numbers
Today numbers are something very necessary, and although we can find different interpretations or symbols depending on our culture, they have a long history behind them that has different currents.
History of numbers:
- It is difficult to explain the origin of numbers without taking into account that not only their use is linked to commercial transactionsand that gave rise to their being used more and more regularly, but we would also have to value philosophers and scholars who began using primitive numerical representations and who gave meaning to their explanations of mathematical concepts.
- In fact, this origin could be located in the prehistory and when man began to use language as a form of communication. For numbers, the first representations they did not cease to be stripes for each number and that they were added until reaching the desired number, in this way if the «1» was a line, the «3» would be represented with three lines.
- On the other hand, and something in which the different civilizations that had their numerical system coincide, was that from a certain number one was made brand either symbol what would represent everyone together. And that number used to be 10. So to represent “12” or “15”, you do this with this symbol and then the number that follows.
Numbers in different cultures:
- Many have been the numerical representations depending on the peoples, and in fact those who have developed a number system may have even received the influence of other peoples and they themselves have remained for history.
- Egyptian numbers: In Egypt numbers were used for commercial transactions, and always represented in base ten using hieroglyphs. It didn’t matter to use a number as many times as needed, and they could just as well write them down. left to right or top to bottom (They even did it for aesthetic order).
- The numbers were also used by the Egyptians in times of floods and when the pharaoh had the fields measured to distribute them among the peasants and in fact they discovered the fractions.
- greek numbers: Not being considered as a single nation, in the numbers developed by the Greeks, we can differentiate two systems. On one hand we have the acrophonic systemwhich means that the number symbols come from the first letter of the number name.
- Also have the Ionian system using the lowercase letters of the alphabet. The numbers looked like letters and the letters had a numerical value.
- indian numbers: As for the Hindus, it can be said that like us they have a decimal system, count from 0 to 9.
- Besides, they were the ones they started using zero. When counting with the abacus, and when the units, tens or hundreds were zero they simply left that line empty. The Hindu numeral system is the system that we currently use, although it has evolved, since lThe Arabs took it and introduced it to Europe.
- mayan numbers: Finally, it should be noted that the Mayans used a base 20 and base 5 numbering system. And the representations of numbers were made by means of hieroglyphs. For the Mayans, the numbers were important to measure time, that is why the Mayan numbers are related to the days, months and years and that they represent with three symbols, the point that has value one, the line that has value five and the snail with zero value.