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SEME-101 - Mathematcians

The document discusses the origins of primitive counting and the development of numerical systems, highlighting evidence from various cultures, such as bone artifacts and the use of quipus by South American Indians. It details counting practices of different tribes, including Australian aboriginals and South African Bushmen, and introduces the Mayan number system which utilized zero. Additionally, it explains the concept of tallying as a fundamental technique for representing numbers visually.

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43 views2 pages

SEME-101 - Mathematcians

The document discusses the origins of primitive counting and the development of numerical systems, highlighting evidence from various cultures, such as bone artifacts and the use of quipus by South American Indians. It details counting practices of different tribes, including Australian aboriginals and South African Bushmen, and introduces the Mayan number system which utilized zero. Additionally, it explains the concept of tallying as a fundamental technique for representing numbers visually.

Uploaded by

Hannah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LESSON 1 Bone artifacts bearing in size marking

Primitive Counting seem to indicate that the people of the old


Mathematics- commonly accepted that is stone age had devised a system of talon by
originated with the practical problems of groups as early as 30,000 B.C.
counting and recording numbers.
Evidences
Birth of the idea of numbers- so hidden 1. shinbone from a young wolf found in
behind the veil of countless ages that is Czechoslovakia in 1937 (7 inches long;
tantalizing to speculate on the remaining engraved with 55 deeply cut notches)
evidences of early humans’ sense of number. Purposes:
a. voting results in small towns
Anthropologists tell us that there has b. hunting tallies
hardly been a culture, however primitive, that c. reckoning time
has not had some awareness of number, 2. Incised bone was unearthed at Ishango,
though it might have been as rudimentary as along the shores of Lake Edward, one of the
the distinction between one and two. headwater sources of the Nile.

PRIMITIVE COUNTING OF SOME THE PERUVIAN QUIPUS: KNOTS AS


COUNTRIES NUMBERS
AUSTRALIAN aboriginal tribes In the new world, the number string is
 Counted to two only, with any number best illustrated by the knotted cord, called
larger than two called simply “much” quipus, of the Uncas of Peru. They were
or “many” originally a South American Indian tribe, or a
collection of kindred tribes living in the Central
SOUTH AMERICAN Indians along the Andean mountainous highlands.
tributaries of the Amazon The quipu was made of a thick main
 Able to count to six, they had no cord or crossbar to which were attached finer
independent number names for groups chords of different lengths and colors.
of three, four, five, or six.
 Example: three (two-one), four (two-two) MAYAN NUMBER SYSTEM
three symbols used
SOUTH AFRICA Bushmen  horizontal bar - 5
 Counted to ten (10= 2+2+2+2+2) with  dot - 1
just two words  special symbol - 0
 Beyond ten, the descriptive phrases The Mayan system may have been the first
became too long. to make use of zero as a placeholder or
number.
TALLYING
- The earliest and most urgent technique
for visually communicating the notion of
number
- to align the number to be counted with
some readily available selection of
objects
Etymology
 French verb tailler (to cut) like the
english word tailor
 Latin word taliare (to cut)
The English word write can be traced to
the Anglo-Saxon writan (to scratch or to notch)

Notches as tally marks


Powers Base-Ten Place Name
Value
20 12,800,000,000 Hablat
20 64,000,000 Alau
20 3,200,000 Kinchill
20 160,000 Cabal
20 8,000 Pic
20 400 Bak
20 20 Kal
20 1 Hun

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