How We Found Out About Numbers

Contents

I. :->UMBERS AND fiNGERS

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2. :'One''. Then instead of having to hold up the forefinge r and Si:ly, " I have this many knives," you couJd say, " 1 have one knife." You could say that wilh your hands in your pocket o r in the dark and people would still under~ stand. \Vhy should you use the word one? Why not some other word? Nobody really kno\\-s. The word was made up so many 1housa.nds of years ago that we don' t know how it came about. h was used long bc(ort the modem Jan~ guages of Europe developed. Each modern t: uropean language u.5cs a d ifferent version of the word but they are all s imilar. In l:':nglish we say o,t, in French the "''ord is un, in Spanish it is UliO, it1German it is dn, in 1..1tin it is MtiUS in • Creek it i.s monos. All the words have the Jc:u er n in it. They all come from some originaJ word that we no longer know. We won't worry about the original word, however, or abou1 the \\-"Ord.s used in other languages. \\"e'IJ ju.st use the Engli.sh \\'Ords with which we are ramiliu. Forthand" • so we'll stop there.

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2. Numbers and writing

Nobody knows when m.1mbcrs were fitst invented but certainly il was before ar1yone had invented writing. The time came. however, when people needed to work out a system for making marks that stood for words. This hap· pened about 5,000 ye-ars ago in the land we oow c-alllraq. Two rivers Row through 1ha1 land, the Euphrates and the Tigris. Ncar the place where they reach the sea 1here \•laS an anc,ient land we call Sumeria. lt was the Sumerians

who first made usc of writing. O ther people, the Chin~e and the Egyptians, also developed systems or writing. Gradually writing spread all over the wodd. \Vhen writing was inveoted, the Surnerians and the Egy ptians had dtics, temples, and f..""'.rmland irriga1ion d itc.hes. Many people had to cooper.Ht in the building of 1hes.e mark~ ofcivilisation. They all had to contribute time and eiTorc They also had to pa)' ta:<es. lt therefore bee-arne irnportam to keep records. The priests of the temples were in cha•·ge of such thirlgs. They had to make sure they knew who paid taxes and how

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muC'h The' could memorise it, rxrhaps, but memory could pl3)• trich and thcrc:- might br argumenu. It was btuer to make some markings 1hat , .. ould show the state oftht' ta'll:t"$ m a ~rmancm way. In Cb('Ofargument the marlmg~ could be looked at. \\'hen writing "a5 fi rst im·ented the priests ustd a diffcr('nt marking for each word. This meant thtrc "ere a lot of markings w memorise, so leami1)g how lO read ar1d wri 1.b a t all, and three "ones". We therefore write it 203. How a bout two thousand a nd thirty? That is two "one thom;ands",no one huodreds at aU, three " tens", a nd no or1es at (til. h is written 2030.

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6. Numbers and the world

Th-e•·e is no doubt tha t the Hindu sys1e.:m of m •merals, ind t•ding the S)'mbol fo r ''m) l hing", is the best evtr invented. You can wri1e big numbers with o nly a fCw symbols

and you don•t have to memorise more than ten symbols a ltogether no maucr how large a number you have to wri te. No•· do you make; ,.,..ords out of llumbers and get

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