Egyptians: The ancient number systems had no zero. They had a unary system or an additive system, in which they used repetition of one symbol to represent any number. Two was two of the symbols for one. For ten, the number of symbols was getting out of hand. Therefore, they introduced a new symbol for ten. Twenty was two of the symbol for ten. Similarly, they had different symbols for hundred, thousand and so on. Hence, they did not have a need of zero.
Ancient Greeks: learned the fundamentals of their math from the Egyptians, had a different number system with nine symbols for each digit from one to nine. They also did not have zero. Their number system did not feature a place holder as did the Babylonian. The abacus has a tendency to suggest the positional model. However this concept was developed by Babylonians. In the position number system, numbers are put in columns, and there is a unit column, a tens’ column, a hundreds’ column, and so on. For example, 243 will be II IIII III. They left a space for zero. In some numbers such as 2001 where there are two zeros, it is impossible to keep a bigger space.
The Babylonians: they eventualy introduced a place holder. By 130 AD, Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, used the Babylonian number system, but with zero represented by a circle. In later ages, Hindus invented zero, and it came into use as a number. Hindu zero symbol came with a meaning of ‘nothing’.
Egyptians: The ancient number systems had no zero. They had a unary system or an additive system, in which they used repetition of one symbol to represent any number. Two was two of the symbols for one. For ten, the number of symbols was getting out of hand. Therefore, they introduced a new symbol for ten. Twenty was two of the symbol for ten. Similarly, they had different symbols for hundred, thousand and so on. Hence, they did not have a need of zero.
ReplyDeleteAncient Greeks: learned the fundamentals of their math from the Egyptians, had a different number system with nine symbols for each digit from one to nine. They also did not have zero. Their number system did not feature a place holder as did the Babylonian. The abacus has a tendency to suggest the positional model. However this concept was developed by Babylonians. In the position number system, numbers are put in columns, and there is a unit column, a tens’ column, a hundreds’ column, and so on. For example, 243 will be II IIII III. They left a space for zero. In some numbers such as 2001 where there are two zeros, it is impossible to keep a bigger space.
ReplyDeleteThe Babylonians: they eventualy introduced a place holder. By 130 AD, Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, used the Babylonian number system, but with zero represented by a circle. In later ages, Hindus invented zero, and it came into use as a number. Hindu zero symbol came with a meaning of ‘nothing’.
ReplyDelete