Numeration System

Introduction
As we begin our journey through the history of mathematics, one question to be asked is “Where
do we start?” Depending on how you view mathematics or numbers, you could choose any of a
number of launching points from which to begin. Howard Eves suggests the following list of
possibilities.

Where to start the study of the history of mathematics…

✓ At the first logical geometric “proofs” traditionally credited to Thales of Miletus (600
BCE).
✓ With the formulation of methods of measurement made by the Egyptians and
Mesopotamians/Babylonians.
✓ Where prehistoric peoples made efforts to organize the concepts of size, shape, and
number.
✓ In pre-human times in the very simple number sense and pattern recognition that can be
displayed by certain animals, birds, etc.
✓ Even before that in the amazing relationships of numbers and shapes found in plants.
✓ With the spiral nebulae, the natural course of planets, and other universe phenomena.
We can choose no starting point at all and instead agree that mathematics has always existed and
has simply been waiting in the wings for humans to discover. Each of these positions can be
defended to some degree and which one you adopt (if any) largely depends on your
philosophical ideas about mathematics and numbers.

In order to count items such as animals, it is often conjectured that one of the earliest methods of
doing so would be with “tally sticks.” These are objects used to track the numbers of items to be
counted. With this method, each “stick” (or pebble, or whatever counting device being used)
represents one animal or object.
In the picture to the right, you see each stick corresponding to one
horse. By examining the collection of sticks in hand one knows
how many animals should be present. You can imagine the
usefulness of such a system, at least for smaller numbers of items
to keep track of. If a herder wanted to “count off” his animals to
make sure they were all present, he could mentally (or
methodically) assign each stick to one animal and continue to do
so until he was satisfied that all were accounted for.

Of course, in our modern system, we have replaced the sticks

with more abstract objects. In particular, the top stick is replaced
with our symbol “1,” the second stick gets replaced by a “2” and the third stick is represented by
the symbol “3,” but we are getting ahead of ourselves here. These modern symbols took many
centuries to emerge.

Another possible way of employing the “tally stick” counting method is by making marks or
cutting notches into pieces of wood, or even tying knots in string. In 1937, Karl Absolom
discovered a wolf bone that goes back possibly 30,000 years. It is believed to be a counting
device.
Another example of this kind of tool is the Ishango Bone, discovered in 1960 at Ishango, and
shown below.It is reported to be between six and nine thousand years old and shows what appear
to be markings used to do counting of some sort.
The markings on rows (a) and (b) each add up to 60. Row (b) contains the prime numbers
between 10 and 20. Row (c) seems to illustrate for the method of doubling and multiplication
used by the Egyptians. It is believed that this may also represent a lunar phase counter.
Written Numbers
When we speak of “written” numbers, we have to be careful because this could mean a variety of
things. It is important to keep in mind that modern paper is only a little more than 100 years old,
so “writing” in times past often took on forms that might look quite unfamiliar to us today.

As we saw earlier, some might consider wooden sticks with notches carved in them as writing as
these are means of recording information on a medium that can be “read” by others. Of course,
the symbols used (simple notches) certainly did not leave a lot of flexibility for communicating a
wide variety of ideas or information.

Other mediums on which “writing” may have taken place include carvings in stone or clay
tablets, rag paper made by hand (12th century in Europe, but earlier in China), papyrus (invented
by the Egyptians and used up until the Greeks), and parchments from animal skins. And these are
just a few of the many possibilities.

These are just a few examples of early methods of counting and simple symbols for representing
numbers. Extensive books, articles and research have been done on this topic and could provide
enough information to fill this entire course if we allowed it to. The range and diversity of
creative thought that has been used in the past to describe numbers and to count objects and
people is staggering. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to examine them all, but it is fun and
interesting to look at some systems in more detail.
Egyptian Hieroglyphs
The system of ancient Egyptian numerals was used in Ancient Egypt from around 3000 BCE
until the early first millennium CE. It was a system of numeration based on multiples of ten
written in hieroglyphs. The Egyptians had no concept of a place-valued system such as the
decimal system. The hieratic form of numerals stressed an exact finite series notation, ciphered
one-to-one onto the Egyptian alphabet.
These symbols represent the powers of ten. From left to right:

1 (stroke),
 10 (heel bone),

100 (scroll),

1000 (lotus flower),

10,000 (finger),

100,000 (tadpole),

1,000,000 (astonished person).

They used a simple grouping system by combining multiple symbols of the same value to add
them up.
The Hindu—Arabic Number System and Roman Numerals

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Become familiar with the evolution of the counting system we use every day
• Write numbers using Roman Numerals
• Convert between Hindu-Arabic and Roman Numerals

The Evolution of a System

Our own number system, composed of the ten symbols {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} is called the Hindu-
Arabic system. This is a base-ten (decimal) system since place values increase by powers of ten.
Furthermore, this system is positional, which means that the position of a symbol has bearing on
the value of that symbol within the number. 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. We’ll explore base systems more thoroughly later. The development of these ten
symbols and their use in a positional system comes to us primarily from India. [1]

Figure 10. Al-Biruni

It was not until the fifteenth century that the symbols that we are familiar with today first took
form in Europe. However, the history of these numbers and their development goes back
hundreds of years. One important source of information on this topic is the writer al-Biruni,
whose picture is shown in figure 10.[2] Al-Biruni, who was born in modern day Uzbekistan, had
visited India on several occasions and made comments on the Indian number system. When we
look at the origins of the numbers that al-Biruni encountered, we have to go back to the third
century BCE to explore their origins. It is then that the Brahmi numerals were being used.

The Brahmi numerals were more complicated than those used in our own modern system. 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 symbols for 1,
2, and 3 are shown below.[3]

These numerals were used all the way up to the fourth century CE, with variations through time
and geographic location. For example, in the first century CE, one particular set of Brahmi
numerals took on the following form:[4]

From the fourth century on, you can actually trace several different paths that the Brahmi
numerals took to get to different points and incarnations. One of those paths led to our current
numeral system, and went through what are called the Gupta numerals. 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 fourth through sixth centuries. They have the
following form:[5]

How the numbers got to their Gupta form is open to considerable debate. Many possible
hypotheses have been offered, most of which boil down to two basic types.[6] The first type of
hypothesis states that the numerals came from the initial letters of the names of the numbers.
This is not uncommon . . . the Greek numerals developed in this manner. The second type of
hypothesis states that they were derived from some earlier number system. However, there are
other hypotheses that are offered, one of which is by the researcher Ifrah. His theory is that there
were originally nine numerals, each represented by a corresponding number of vertical lines.
One possibility is this:[7]
Because these symbols would have taken a lot of time to write, they eventually evolved into
cursive symbols that could be written more quickly. If we compare these to the Gupta numerals
above, we can try to see how that evolutionary process might have taken place, but our
imagination would be just about all we would have to depend upon since we do not know exactly
how the process unfolded.

The Gupta numerals eventually evolved into another form of numerals called the Nagari
numerals, and these continued to evolve until the eleventh century, at which time they looked
like this:[8]

Note that by this time, the symbol for 0 has appeared! The Mayans in the Americas had a symbol
for zero long before this, however, as we shall see later in the chapter.

These numerals were adopted by the Arabs, most likely in the eighth century during Islamic
incursions into the northern part of India.[9] It is believed that the Arabs were instrumental in
spreading them to other parts of the world, including Spain (see below).

Other examples of variations up to the eleventh century include: [10]

Figure 11. Devangari, eighth century

Figure 12. West Arab Gobar, tenth century

Figure 13. Spain, 976 BCE

Finally, figure 14[11] shows various forms of these numerals as they developed and eventually
converged to the fifteenth century in Europe.

Figure 14.

Roman Numerals

The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome (753 BC–476
AD) and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late
Middle Ages (generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries (c. 1301–1500)). Numbers in this
system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Roman numerals, as
used today, are based on seven symbols:
 Symbol I V X L C D M

Value 1 5 10 50 100 500 1,000

The use of Roman numerals continued long after the decline of the Roman Empire. From the
14th century on, Roman numerals began to be replaced in most contexts by the more convenient
Hindu-Arabic numerals; however, this process was gradual, and the use of Roman numerals
persists in some minor applications to this day.

The numbers 1 to 10 are usually expressed in Roman numerals as follows:

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Numbers are formed by combining symbols and adding the values, so II is two (two ones)
and XIII is thirteen (a ten and three ones). Because each numeral has a fixed value rather than
representing multiples of ten, one hundred and so on, according to position, there is no need for
“place keeping” zeros, as in numbers like 207 or 1066; those numbers are written as CCVII (two
hundreds, a five and two ones) and MLXVI (a thousand, a fifty, a ten, a five and a one).

Symbols are placed from left to right in order of value, starting with the largest. However, in a
few specific cases, to avoid four characters being repeated in succession (such as IIII or XXXX),
subtractive notation is used: as in this table:

Number 4 9 40 90 400 900

Roman Numeral IV IX XL XC CD CM

In summary:

• I placed before V or X indicates one less, so four is IV (one less than five) and nine
is IX (one less than ten)
• X placed before L or C indicates ten less, so forty is XL (ten less than fifty) and ninety
is XC (ten less than a hundred)
• C placed before D or M indicates a hundred less, so four hundred is CD (a hundred less
than five hundred) and nine hundred is CM (a hundred less than a thousand)
 Four Fundamental Operations and Properties

Basic Arithmetic Operations

The four basic arithmetic operations in Maths, for all real numbers, are:

• Addition (Finding the Sum; ‘+’)

• Subtraction (Finding the difference; ‘-’)
• Multiplication (Finding the product; ‘×’ )
• Division (Finding the quotient; ‘÷’)
Let us discuss all these four basic arithmetic operations with rules and examples in detail.

Addition Definition

The addition is a mathematical process of adding things together. The addition process is
denoted by ‘+’ sign. It involves combining two or more numbers into a single term. In addition
process, the order does not matter. It means that the addition process is commutative. It can
involve any type of number whether it be a real or complex number, fraction, or decimals.

Example: 4.13 + 3.87 = 8

The addition of more than two numbers, values or terms is also known as a summation of terms
and can involve n number of values.

Addition Rules

The following are the addition rules for integers:

• Addition of two positive integers is a positive integer

• Addition of two negative integers is a negative integer
• While adding positive and negative integers, subtract the integers and use the sign of the
largest integer number

Subtraction Definition

The subtraction operation gives the difference between two numbers. Subtraction is denoted
by ‘-‘ sign. It is almost similar to addition but is the conjugate of the second term. It is the
inverse process of addition. The addition of the term with the negative term is known as
subtraction. This process is mostly used to find how many are left when some things are taken
away.

Example: 15 – 7

The term can also be re-written as 15 + (-7)

Adding terms we have, 8.

Subtraction Rules

The following are the subtraction rules for integers:

• If both the signs of the integers are positive, the answer will be the positive integer
• If both the signs of the integers are negative, the answer will be the negative integer
• If the signs of the integers are different, subtract the values, and take the sign from the
largest integer value.

Multiplication Definition

Multiplication is known as repeated addition. It is denoted by ‘×’ or ‘*’. It also combines with
two or more values to result in a single value. The multiplication process involves multiplicand,
multiplier. The result of the multiplication of multiplicand and the multiplier is called the product

Example: 2 × 3 = 6

Here, “2” is the multiplier, “3” is the multiplicand, and the result “6” is called the product.

The product of two numbers says ‘a’ and ‘b’ results in a single value term ‘ab,‘ where a and b
are the factors of the final value obtained.

Multiplication Rules

The following are the multiplication rules for the integers.

• The product of two positive integers is a positive integer

• The product of two negative integers is a positive integer
• The product of positive and negative integer is a negative integer

Division Definition
The division is usually denoted by ‘÷‘ and is the inverse of multiplication. It constitutes two terms
dividend and divisor, where the dividend is divided by the divisor to give a single term
value. When the dividend is greater than the divisor, the result obtained is greater than 1, or else it
would be less than 1.

Example: 4 ÷ 2 = 2

Here, “4” is the dividend, “2” is the divisor, and the result “2” is called the quotient.

Read: Multiplication and Division of Integers

Division Rules

The following are the division rules for integers:

• The division of two positive integers is a positive integer

• The division of two negative numbers is a positive integer
• The division of integers with different signs results in the negative integer.

Mathematical Operations

The basic mathematical operations are the four arithmetic operations that we have already
learned in the above sections.

Addition and subtraction are inverse operations of each other. It means if the addition of two
numbers gives the third number, then subtraction of an added number from the third number will
result in the original number.

1. Closure Property . If a and b are real numbers,

a + b=R Cl A
a • b = R Cl M

Examples: 2+3 = 5 2•3=6

2. Commutative Property. For any real numbers a and b, the order of the addends in
addition and the factors in multiplication does not change the final result.
Addition: a + b = b + a Multiplication: a • b = b • a
Examples. 2+3 =3+2 2•3 = 3•2
3. Associative Property. For any real numbers a, b, and c, changing the grouping of the
addends and the factors in multiplication does not change the final result.

Addition: (a + b) + c = a + (b + c) APA
Multiplication: (a• b) • c = a• (b • c) APM
Examples: (2+3) + 4 = 2 + (3 + 4) (2•3) • 4 = 2• (3• 4)
5 +4=2+ 7 6 • 4 = 2 • 12
9=9 24 = 24
4. Distributive Property. For any real number a multiplied by the sum of b and c, the result
is obtained by multiplying the factor a by each of the terms b and c.
a ( b + c) = ab + ac Example: 2 ( 3 + 4) = 2(3) + 2(4)
(a + b) c = ac + bc

5. Identity Property. For any real number a when added to zero will result to a, thus a + 0
= a and any real number a multiplied by 1 will result to a, thus a • 1 = a
• The identity element in addition is 0, the identity element for multiplication is 1.
Examples: +5 + 0 = +5
-5(1) = -5

6. Inverse Property. For any real number a, when added to its inverse –a will result to 0
thus +a +(-a) = 0 and any real number a multiplied by its reciprocal 1/a will result to 1.
a(1/a) = 1
Examples: (+5) + (-5) = 0
(5) (1/5) = 1

7. Multiplication Property of Zero. Any real number a multiplied by zero will always
result to 0, thus a• 0 = 0
Examples: (+5) (0) = 0
(-4) (0) = 0

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS:

Name the property used in each of the following.
__________ 1. √3 + ¼ = ¼ + √3 _________6. 12 • 1 = 12
__________ 2. 4 + ( 9 + √5) = (4 + 9) + √5 _________7. -3(-2+5) = (-3)(-2) + (-3)(5)
__________ 3. 15 + 6 = 21 _________8. 24 • 0 = 0
3 1
__________ 4. • 3=1 _________9. 32 + 0 = 32
11
11
__________5. 8 + (-8) = 0 ________10. ½ (x+3) = 1/2• x + ½•3
5.1: The Evolution of Numeration Systems - Mathematics LibreTexts
The Hindu—Arabic Number System and Roman Numerals | Mathematics for the Liberal Arts
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