The second type of hypothesis states that they were derived from some earlier number system. This is not uncommon…the Greek numerals developed in this manner. The first type of hypothesis states that the numerals came from the initial letters of the names of the numbers. Many possible hypotheses have been offered, most of which boil down to two basic types. How the numbers got to their Gupta form is open to considerable debate. The Gupta numerals were prominent during a time ruled by the Gupta dynasty and were spread throughout that empire as they conquered lands during the 4 th through 6 th centuries. One of those paths led to our current numeral system, and went through what are called the Gupta numerals. For example, in the first century C.E., one particular set of Brahmi numerals took on the following form:įrom the 4 th century on, you can actually trace several different paths that the Brahmi numerals took to get to different points and incarnations. These numerals were used all the way up to the 4 th century C.E., with variations through time and geographic location. The Brahmi symbols for 1, 2, and 3 are shown below. They had separate symbols for the numbers 1 through 9, as well as distinct symbols for 10, 100, 1000,…, also for 20, 30, 40,…, and others for 200, 300, 400, …, 900. The Brahmi numerals were more complicated than those used in our own modern system. It is then that the Brahmi numerals were being used. When we look at the origins of the numbers that al-Biruni encountered, we have to go back to the third century B.C.E. Al-Biruni, who was born in modern day Uzbekistan, had visited India on several occasions and made comments on the Indian number system. One important source of information on this topic is the writer al-Biruni, whose picture is shown here. However, the history of these numbers and their development goes back hundreds of years. It was not until the 15 th century that the symbols that we are familiar with today first took form in Europe. The development of these ten symbols and their use in a positional system comes to us primarily from India. We’ll explore base systems more thoroughly later. For example, the position of the symbol 3 in the number 435,681 gives it a value much greater than the value of the symbol 8 in that same number.
Furthermore, this system is positional, which means that the position of a symbol has bearing on the value of that symbol within the number. This is a base-ten (decimal) system since place values increase by powers of ten.
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