Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions -
Break your brain. You know you want to.
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Monday, 7 December 2020
quote [ Centuries ago, a prestigious Islamic library brought Arabic numerals to the world. Though the library long since disappeared, its mathematical revolution changed our world. ]
Thought this was an interesting, albeit basic read on how Arabic numerals reached the western world.
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Comments
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yunnaf said @ 4:57pm GMT on 7th Dec
[Score:1 Informative]
"albeit basic"
Ignoring the history of zero is a major faux pas. |
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zenviper said @ 5:32pm GMT on 7th Dec
This sounds like it warrants another post....
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Bob Denver said @ 7:32pm GMT on 7th Dec
[Score:1 Informative]
We actually use Indian numbers. Arabic numbers are quite different.
From Wikipedia: The reason the digits are more commonly known as "Arabic numerals" in Europe and the Americas is that they were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic-speakers of North Africa, who were then using the digits from Libya to Morocco. Arabs were also using the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) in other areas. In 825 Al-Khwārizmī wrote a treatise in Arabic, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals,[21] which survives only as the 12th-century Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum.[22][23] Algoritmi, the translator's rendition of the author's name, gave rise to the word algorithm.[24] |
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