Home
TV
Radio
Talk ... Newswatch Last Updated: Monday, 15 September, 2003, 13:31 GMT 14:31 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Greeks 'borrowed Egyptian numbers'
By Paul Rincon
BBC Science
The astronomers, physicists and mathematicians of ancient Greece were true innovators. Ancient Greeks used letters and extra symbols to represent digits But one thing it seems the ancient Greeks did not invent was the counting system on which many of their greatest thinkers based their pioneering calculations. New research suggests the Greeks borrowed their system known as alphabetic numerals from the Egyptians, and did not develop it themselves as was long believed. Greek alphabetic numerals were favoured by the mathematician and physicist Archimedes, the scientific philosopher Aristotle and the mathematician Euclid, amongst others. Trade explosion An analysis by Dr Stephen Chrisomalis of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, showed striking similarities between Greek alphabetic numerals and Egyptian demotic numerals, used in Egypt from the late 8th Century BC until around AD 450. Both systems use nine signs in each "base" so that individual units are counted 1-9, tens are counted 10-90 and so on. Both systems also lack a symbol for zero. | |
|
