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As soon as early men learnt how to write, they developed a way of putting down numbers. The
ancient Egyptians used a hieroglyphic (pictorial) method of representing numbers for counting,
weighing and measuring. The Greeks used an alphabetical system: alpha for 1, beta for 2 and so on.
The Romans used simple stroke marks for the first three numbers, but for 5, they used a 'V' sign,
which may originally have been represented as a hand; 10 was two Vs, linked together as a cross,
forming the symbol X. Primitive tribes today still count by fives because there are five fingers on
each hand: Eskimos still count in twenties. In the Middle Ages, twenty, known as a score, was a
much used number; in fact, we still keep the word 'score' in such games as football, tennis and
cricket.
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