[Reader-list] WHY IS 1 is one , 2 is two

Tue Jun 1 15:35:51 IST 2010

Dear Kshemendra,

Thanks for lots of search work in the subject. Angular logic behind the numbers 0 to 9 I found interesting, so I posted it and not necessarily to be true historically.

Thanks

Bipin

From: Kshmendra Kaul [mailto:kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 2:25 PM
To: sarai-list; Bipin Trivedi
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] WHY IS 1 is one , 2 is two

Dear Bipin

This reading of 'angles' in the Numerals is just a myth.

I am sure you (and others) will find the following interesting:

"The Arabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals are the ten  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_digit> digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). They are descended from the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu-Arabic_numeral_system> Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics> Indian mathematicians"

"The Indian numerals were adopted by the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_mathematics> Persian mathematicians in India, and passed on to the Arabs further west. From there they were transmitted to  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe> Europe in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages> Middle Ages."

"Europeans didn't know about the numerals' roots in ancient India, so they named them "Arabic numerals". Arabs, on the other hand, call the system " <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu> Hindu numerals", referring to their origin in India. "

"The decimal Hindu-Arabic numeral system was invented in India around 500 AD. The system was revolutionary in that it included a  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero> zero and  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_notation> positional notation. It is considered an important milestone in the development of mathematics."

"The  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_digit> digits 1 to 9 in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu-Arabic_numeral_system> Hindu-Arabic numeral system evolved from the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_numerals> Brahmi numerals."

"The  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numeral_system> numeral system came to be known to both the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_people> Persian mathematician  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi> Al-Khwarizmi, whose book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 825 in  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic> Arabic, and the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab> Arab mathematician  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Kindi> Al-Kindi, who wrote four volumes, "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) about 830. Their work was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East> Middle East and the West. In the 10th century,  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-East> Middle-Eastern mathematicians extended the decimal numeral system to include  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractions> fractions, as recorded in a treatise by  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian> Syrian mathematician  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu%27l-Hasan_al-Uqlidisi> Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in 952–53."

"A distinctive West Arabic variant of the symbols begins to emerge around the 10th century in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb> Maghreb and  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus> Al-Andalus, called ghubar ("sand-table" or "dust-table") numerals, which is the direct ancestor to the modern Western Arabic numerals used throughout the world."

" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_of_Pisa> Fibonacci, a mathematician born in the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Pisa> Republic of Pisa who had studied in  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bejaia> Bejaia ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougie> Bougie),  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria> Algeria, promoted the Indian numeral system in  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe> Europe with his book  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liber_Abaci> Liber Abaci, which was written in 1202:

"When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the customs at  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugia> Bugia acting for the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisa> Pisan merchants going there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still a child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians' nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it.."  

" 

The numerals are arranged with their lowest value digit to the right, with higher value positions added to the left. This arrangement was adopted identically into the numerals as used in Europe. Languages written in the Latin alphabet run from left to right, unlike languages written in the Arabic alphabet. Hence, from the point of view of the reader, numerals in Western texts are written with the highest power of the base first whereas numerals in Arabic texts are written with the lowest power of the base first."

(Above extracts taken from  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals )

Kshmendra

--- On Sat, 5/29/10, Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in> wrote:

From: Bipin Trivedi <aliens at dataone.in>
Subject: [Reader-list] WHY IS 1 is one , 2 is two
To: "sarai-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 10:34 PM

Have you asked this question why 1 is "one", 2 is "two" and 3 is "three".

Just the very beautiful logic behind this.

See this link

 <http://www.multilinesolutions.com/whyoneis1twois2/index.htm> http://www.multilinesolutions.com/whyoneis1twois2/index.htm

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