3 2 1 ...

I have always been curious about numbers and where they came from. I have always wanted to know why or who decided that the number one would look like this, “1,” or the number two, “2,” etc. While doing my research I found it hard to point the finger at just one person or one culture that has contributed to the number system we use today. Come to find out, it is actually a collaboration of all the cultures from every generation since the dawn of time. “It is safe to say that soon after the development of language humans began to count, and the fingers and thumbs provided nature’s abacus” (History).

Records have been found from 3000 BC Egypt. The records show a number system using a vertical line for the number 1 and the number 10 is represented as “^.” An example of this would be the number 12 which would become II^, read right to left (History).

Around 300 BC the Arabs showed up on the number scene. The Arabs were more interested in using numbers for mathematics. The Arabs realized that for zero to fulfill its potential in mathematics it was very important for every number up to the base number have its own unique symbol (History). This was achieved first in India and began making its way around the world (History). The Indians used a small dot or circle in place of a digit with no value, this is where we get 0 (History). About 200 years later the Indian digits that the Arabs were writing made it to Europe and began being called Arabic numbers instead of their original name which would have been something like Hindu or Indian numbers (History). Roman Numerals also appeared during this time, and are still in use today. Roman numerals are based on a system of 5. Most of us are familiar with Roman numerals, but one interesting fact that I found is that the reason Roman numerals look the way they do is based on the digits on your hand (Numbers).

Today’s numbers are known as Hindu-Arabic numbers which consist of a combination of 10 symbols, 0-9 (Numbers). These were first introduced by Leonardo Pisano who was educated in North Africa where they used the Hindu number system in combination with their own, Arabic numbers (Numbers). Thus, where are where we are now, we can count as high as our hearts desire. We even have a website named after a number in this system, Google.

Works Cited

“History of Counting Systems and Numerals.” History World. Web. 03 July. 2010. http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab34

“Numbers’ & Numeral Systems’ History and Curiosities.” Archimedes Laboratory. Web. 03 July. 2010. http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numeral.html