• @FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      81 year ago

      How did they get mixed? I see 1 in arabic and 2 and 3 in Hindu. Is there a good place to start reading or watching about this in your opinion? If not, I’m just gonna YouTube the history of numbers and see where I land

      • @dukk@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        91 year ago

        IIRC Hindus invented this number system (with glyphs for 0-9), and then the Arabs starting using it. Eventually the west started using them and credited the Arabs.

        As for how they are written, everyone used the same shapes, and then they probably just ended up changing over time (“Hmm…how do I write that number again? Oh whatever I’ll just make it up”)

        Feel free to do your own research though.

        • @Sylvartas@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          31 year ago

          IIRC Hindus didn’t have a “proper” 0, and Arabs did, which I guess is the reason why they got the credit

          • @dukk@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            61 year ago

            Zero was (in its modern form) invented in India. It’s pretty fundamental to the concept of Hindu-Arabic numerals too: it’s how we represent numbers such as 10, 100, and so on.

            • @Sylvartas@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              1
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Yeah after some quick googling it looks like I’m wrong. I’m quite sure that’s what I was taught in school though, so blame my teacher !

              Basically I was taught that Hindus invented the 0 for base-10 numerals, but didn’t actually use it for maths (e.g 0*x = 0), whereas Arab mathematicians did.

      • @jdf038@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        21 year ago

        I’d go on a youtube journey. I’m sure you’ll find some cool linguistics videos about it

      • @Midnight1938@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        1 and 9 are the only ones that seem more arabic than hindu. Hindu gets १ and ९. Everything else is pretty close to source.