Question

reflection early number systems and symbols

Answer 1

Explanation:

Numeral Systems

It appears that the primitive numerals were |, ||, |||, and so on, as found in Egypt and the Grecian lands, or ―, =, ≡, and so on, as found in early records in East Asia, each going as far as the simple needs of people required. As life became more complicated, the need for group numbers became apparent, and it was only a small step from the simple system with names only for one and ten to the further naming of other special numbers. Sometimes this happened in a very unsystematic fashion; for example, the Yukaghirs of Siberia counted, “one, two, three, three and one, five, two threes, two threes and one, two fours, ten with one missing, ten.” Usually, however, a more regular system resulted, and most of these systems can be classified, at least roughly, according to the logical principles underlying them.

Simple grouping systems

In its pure form a simple grouping system is an assignment of special names to the small numbers, the base b, and its powers b2, b3, and so on, up to a power bk large enough to represent all numbers actually required in use. The intermediate numbers are then formed by addition, each symbol being repeated the required number of times, just as 23 is written XXIII in Roman numerals.

The earliest example of this kind of system is the scheme encountered in hieroglyphs, which the Egyptians used for writing on stone. (Two later Egyptian systems, the hieratic and demotic, which were used for writing on clay or papyrus, will be considered below; they are not simple grouping systems.) The number 258,458 written in hieroglyphics appears in the figure. Numbers of this size actually occur in extant records concerning royal estates and may have been commonplace in the logistics and engineering of the great pyramids.

Ancient Egyptians customarily wrote from right to left. Because they did not have a positional system, they needed separate symbols for each power of 10.