Table of Contents History of Numbers: Essay Introduction

The Hindu-Arabic Number History
This form is the common system of counting and numbers used in the 21st Century. In India, Al-Brahmi introduced the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (Menninger 175). The Brahmi numerals kept changing with time. For instance, in the 4th to 6th Century, the numerals were as shown below.
Fig.3 The numerical developments through centuries (Higgins 189).
Finally, the numerals were later developed to 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 with time. The earliest system of using zero was developed in Cambodia. The evolution of the decimal points emerged during the Saka era, whereby three digits and a dot in between were introduced (Hays and Schmandt-Besserat 198). The Babylonians introduced the positional system, whereby the place value of the numerical systems was established. Moreover, the positional system by the Babylonians developed the base systems to the numerical, and the Indians later developed it further. The Brahmi numerals took different incarnations to develop, which resulted in the current number system (Higgins 204).
The Gupta numerals were one of the processes passed by the Hindu-Arabic number system to become the commonly used American number version. Currently, theories about the formation and development of the Gupta numerals remain debatable by researchers.
In addition, the Europeans adopted the Hindu-Arabic system through trading, whereby the travelers used the Mediterranean Sea for trade interactions (Havil 190). The use of the abacus and the Pythagorean dominated the European number evolution. The Pythagorean used “sacred numbers” even though the two systems diminished after a short while. With time, the Europeans borrowed the Hindu-Arabic number system to establish their mathematical number systems (Ifrah and Bello, 207). However, the process through which the Europeans adopted the Hindu-Arabic system has not been proven fully. It is believed that the Europeans adopted the Hindu-Arabic number system by relying heavily on it to build their current strong numerals (Higgins 210). For instance, the scope of the positional base system is quite large, which involves the conversion of different bases using the numerical number 10.