Write brifef description on invention of numbers from ancient period to modern world
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The first method of counting has been argued to be counting on fingers.[1][better source needed] This evolved into sign language for the hand-to-eye-to-elbow communication of numbers which, while not writing, gave way to written numbers.
Tallies made by carving notches in wood, bone, and stone were used for at least forty thousand years.[2][3] These tally marks may have been used for counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days, lunar cycles or keeping records of quantities, such as of animals.
Lebombo bone is a baboon fibula with incised markings discovered in the Lebombo Mountains located between South Africa and Swaziland. The bone is between 44,230 and 43,000 years old, according to two dozen radiocarbon datings. According to The Universal Book of Mathematics the Lebombo bone's 29 notches suggest "it may have been used as a lunar phase counter, in which case African women may have been the first mathematicians, because keeping track of menstrual cycles requires a lunar calendar." But the bone is clearly broken at one end, so the 29 notches can only be a minimum number. Furthermore, in the many more notched bones since found there is no consistent notch tally, many being in the 1–10 range.
Ishango bone is an artifact with a sharp piece of quartz affixed to one end, perhaps for engraving. It was first thought to be a tally stick, as it has a series of what has been interpreted as tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the tool. But some scientists have suggested that the groupings of notches indicate a mathematical understanding that goes beyond counting. It has also been suggested that the scratches might have been to create a better grip on the handle or for some other non-mathematical reason. It is believed that the bone is more than 20,000 years old