Re: Numbers

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

I forgot to mention some believe counting was done before the invention
of writing. i.e. before 3k bce.

I suppose you all know where we got the inconvenient sexigesimal system?

bc

Bernard Cleyet wrote:

> I think algebra * was invented in the middle ages by the Muslims.  The
> "Ancient" Egyptians knew surveying because of the periodic fluding of
> the Nile.  I think the Iraqis counted *, what 3k years ago?
>
> * Arabic word, sounds similar to many stars.
>
> [This is from my Ancient History class in ~ 1953]
>
> They did more, # 1 in my search
>
> http://www.math.tamu.edu/~don.allen/history/babylon/babylon.html
> <http://www.math.tamu.edu/%7Edon.allen/history/babylon/babylon.html>
>
> "... in the Middle Ages people paid little attention to counting let
> alone arithmetic ..."
>
> That's why they were the dark ages for the Christian countries.
>
> Remember by 100 bce Greeks had estimated the size of the earth, the
> distances to the moon and sun, and the precession of the equinoxes.
> [search Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Eratosthenes.]
>
> However, it wasn't 'till the early 16th cent. that Da Vinci explained
> why the crescent moon's night side is not completely dark.
>
>
> http://millennium-debate.org/ind19april5.htm
>
>
>
> From a little further reading it appears that numbers were concomitant
> with the invention of symbols for phonemes.   Here's one source that
> claims numbers extant from five thousand years ago.
>
> http://www.ilovemaths.com/ind_mathe.htm
>
>
> bc
>
>
> Jim Green wrote:
>
>
>
> > That history lecturer from UCLA seemed to say tonight that in the Middle
> > Ages  people paid little attention to counting let alone arithmetic -- and
> > that there is not much value in the numbers eg time spans -- given in
> > historical accounts.
> >
> > When did counting begin?
> >
> > When did simple arithmetic begin?
> >
> > Jim
> >
> >
> > Jim Green
> > mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
> > http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen