1. Dr. X. Centric Receives a Letter from a Mayan Friend A Webquest Designed to Explore the Mayan Numeration System By Cheryl J. McAllister July 2001

2. Dr. X calls you and your friends over to his house one day. He shows you a letter he received from a friend of his who lives in Mexico.

3. Dear Dr. X, I know that you like to learn about how other people in other cultures do mathematics. I would like for you to learn about the mathematics of an ancient culture that flourished between 1000 BC and 1521 AD in parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. The people who built this culture were known as the Mayans.

4. I am enclosing some internet sites that will help you learn about Mayan mathematics and the Mayan culture. You will see as you look at the different web sites that they explain the Mayan numeration system in two slightly different ways. One way was to accommodate calendar calculations and the other was for commercial calculations. Some of the other sites have interesting information, games and activities, so I thought you’d like to look at them. Have fun. Your friend, Pablito

5. Numeral Chart Here are the Mayan representations for the numbers from 1 to 20. Can you figure out the system they used? What did each symbol mean?

6. Internet Sites that Discuss Mayan Numeration and Mathematics  Numeral converter  http://www.michielb.nl/ maya/math.html http://www.michielb.nl/ maya/math.html  http://mathforum.com/k1 2/mayan.math/ http://mathforum.com/k1 2/mayan.math/  Mayan Calendar  http://www.mayacalenda r.com/ http://www.mayacalenda r.com/  Methods of commercial calculations  http://www.niti.org/mayan/l esson.htm http://www.niti.org/mayan/l esson.htm  http://www.hanksville.org/y ucatan/mayamath.html http://www.hanksville.org/y ucatan/mayamath.html

7. This internet site explains Mayan culture.  http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/ma yans.html http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/ma yans.html

8. Dr. X asks you to help him investigate Mayan numeration and mathematics by doing the following:  Discover how Mayan numeration was different and similar to our Hindu-Arabic system. Did the Mayan system have any special characteristics?  Make a chart to show how the Mayans would have added 8,921 + 1,674 using both calendar and commercial calculation methods.  Make a chart to show how the Mayans would have subtracted 5,972 – 3,198 using both methods.  Make a chart to show how the Mayans would have multiplied 593 X 5.