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Decimal System - From China?

The document discusses the origins of the decimal system. It notes that while ancient Greeks did not use Roman numerals, their number system using letters of the alphabet may have hindered the development of simplified notation. The most ancient Hindu records also did not use the modern ten-digit system but had a system similar to the Greeks, suggesting that China may be the ultimate source of the decimal numbering system that is common today.

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temujin03
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49 views

Decimal System - From China?

The document discusses the origins of the decimal system. It notes that while ancient Greeks did not use Roman numerals, their number system using letters of the alphabet may have hindered the development of simplified notation. The most ancient Hindu records also did not use the modern ten-digit system but had a system similar to the Greeks, suggesting that China may be the ultimate source of the decimal numbering system that is common today.

Uploaded by

temujin03
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Decimal system -- from China?

It's still hard to believe that the "obvious" and so-convenient decimal system didn't catch on in Europe until almost the Renaissance. Ancient Greeks, by the way, did not use the unwieldy Roman numerals, but rather used 27 symbols, denoting 1 to 9, 10 to 90, and 100 to 900. Unlike our system, with ten digits separate from the alphabet, the 27 Greek number symbols were the same as their alphabet's letters; this might have hindered the development of "syncopated" notation. The most ancient Hindu records did not use the ten digits of Aryabhatta, but rather a system similar to that of the ancient Greeks, suggesting that China, and not India, may indeed be the "ultimate" source of the modern decimal system.

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