Page 54 - July18LivingSCCLmagazine

WHAT’S IN A NUMBER?
If higher mathematics was not a part of our profession, most of us had already absorbed the basic numeric knowledge that we need to function by the end of high school. But numbers can be fascinating. Even the time of day on a digital clock can make you smile if the numbers are familiar, like your birth month and day, or the house number of your old address, or are in a good set like 7:11 or 12:34. We are surrounded by numbers: phone numbers, pin numbers,
numbers games, TV channels, Interstate and highway numbers, merchandise prices and sales discounts, addresses, days and dates, times, and temperatures, 24/7/365, ad infinitum.
We know that early man must
have used numbers, at least in
his head and in his speech, from
the time he began to think and
realize what he had, what was out
there, and what he wanted. What was the first numerical thought? It may have been “I see one lion,” or “I have food for two days.” He had to think in more precise terms than one or many. He realized he had fingers
and toes on which to count. Fingers and toes, our first numerical system, are referred to as digits, from their Latin name, digitus. Man started recording numbers as notches on a bone. When man was able to find a bit of leisure to think beyond daily survival, civilization developed. Along with civilization came ancient formalized numerical systems.
There are many such systems, including those of the Egyptians and Babylonians, the Greeks, the Hebrews, the Chinese, Japanese, and others. The system still used for numbering special events, like Super Bowls and Olympic Games, is the Roman system of combining I’s, V’s, X’s, L’s, C’s, D’s, and M’s to designate numbers. How many times have you tried to do a quick translation of the date run at the end of an old movie? One beauty of a date is MDCCCLXXXVIII. Its 13 digits translate to 1888. Add another millennium, add
By Lee Johnston
another M. The system supports only basic addition
and subtraction: add a letter here, take one away there. Don’t even try to multiply or divide them – the Romans used an abacus for that, as did the Chinese and Russians. Abaci are still in use in many parts of the world.
Several numerical systems had the concept of zero, but in most systems it was just a vacant position. In some
it was depicted as a disc with an empty or vacant center. (Is that familiar?) The Roman system, and many of the other systems in the world, had no place for zero. The zero and numbers we use today are the legacy to most of the modern world from the Hindu-Arabic system that preserved and further developed the science and mathematics of previous cultures. The Moors brought
their knowledge to North Africa and on into Europe, thus we call the numbers Arabic. Mathematicians and scientists soon realized the beauty and utility of the simple numbers. Bankers could calculate interest out to several decimal points, merchants could price their wares effectively, and mathematicians could begin to use the fractions, quadratic equations, and the algebra already
in use in the Middle East. The next step in numerical system development wouldn’t come until 1679 with
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54 LIVING @ SCCL, July 2018