Overview

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system (1, 2, 3,...) is one of mankind's greatest achievements and one of its most commonly used inventions. How did it originate? Those who have written about the numeral system have hypothesized that it originated in India; however, there is little evidence to support this claim. This book provides considerable evidence to show that the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, in spite of its commonly accepted name, has its origins in the Chinese rod numeral system. This system was in use in China from antiquity till the 16th and 17th centuries. It was used by officials, astronomers, traders and others to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other arithmetic operations, and also used by mathematicians to develop arithmetic and algebra. Based on this system, numerous mathematical treatises were written. Sun Zi suanjing (The Mathematical Classic of Sun Zi), written around 400 AD, is the earliest extant work that has a description of the rod numerals and their operations. With this treatise as a central reference, the first part of the book discusses the development of arithmetic and the beginnings of algebra in ancient China and, on the basis of

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9781281880734

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