How Numbers developed. by Pavitra Cumaraswamy

The history of Ancients using numbers The best known ancient numeral system is Roman numerals. In the 14 th century most people stopped using Roman numerals because everyone started favoring Hindu-Arabic numerals. However some people still use it today, for specific things like marking buildings or in elevators or chapter headings in books. Other ancient numeral systems are Hindu, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian and Chinese.

Hindu-Arabic numerals and the use of ZERO Hindu numerals were adopted by the Persians who gave it to the Arabs who gave it to Europe. This was Europe’s introduction to zero. It was the Arabs who developed fractions and decimals.

Introduction to Europe Hindu-Arabic numerals were introduced into Europe in the 10 th Century AD by North African Arabs who occupied parts of Europe. These were popularized by an Italian mathematician called Fibonacci in the 12 th Century. The Chinese adopted the system in the 17 th Century and the Russians in the 18 th.

Expansion of Mathematics The Indians first used a blank space to indicate zero and later developed a name and symbol for it. There is evidence that the Mayans had zero as concept as well, about the same time. People started thinking about negative numbers (numbers less than zero) a long time later.

The Binary System Although binary representation (the use of 0 and 1 to describe all numbers) was invented by the ancient Hindus, its use in modern mathematics was developed only in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The Binary system is the basis of the modern computer.

Summary Mathematics was developed (like most things) by different people at different times, each building on ideas that came before. It developed fast at some times and slowly at others. The biggest difference now is that mathematics, which used to be a privilege of the rulers and the rich is now a tool almost everyone can use.