The Fascinating History of Arabic Numerals (Modern Day Numbers!)

The history of Arabic Numerals is strange and fascinating—and it was almost forgotten for 300 years! Join Hank for a new episode of SciShow where he unravels the fascinating yarn of how the world came to use so-called Arabic numerals, and replaced Roman numerals.

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[manamejeff]

To all you guys saying “who cares if he was Arab. What matters is what he did and not where he is from”.
- Ironicly this does not seem to apply when the Arab is suddenly a bad guy?

Edit:
I see a lot of comments on the fact that the man was Persian.
Have none of you even understood my point? I could have replaced “Arab”
with “Persian” or “Muslim”. My point still remains, you geniuses. What are you even trying to debate here?

[scatterbrainednerd]

It's insane that I never learned about this guy in any of my math or history classes. Seriously, American education system?

[drdsh]

Wow. There are a lot of haters here 😮

To your information brothers,
There is someone who called ibn Al Haytham, he is the one that invented optics. And As a result we have things called camera and cinema Now. And he is an Arab.

There is someone who called Abbas bin Fernas, he is the one that invented the idea of planes.

There is someone who called Gaber bin Hayyan, He has been described as “the father of early chemistry”. And he is an Arab

I don’t know why are you angry about Arabs scientists, or Muslims that took sciences from another culture and tried to develop and improve them.

As humans we should take science from anywhere we can.
The result will be for all humans.

Same as the European that took sciences from Arab Universities.
And improve them to higher levels

And [By the way],
University ( As a modern definition ) is invented by Arabs too 😉.

So, keep calm. All of us are humans.
And Don’t be selfish. 🙃

Edit : Thank you for the likes 🌹

[BlitzWalkthrough]

The fact that many people don‘t even know about this man and his achievements shows the extreme western bias in teaching of history. In school, we only ever learned about European mathmaticians

[mikeletterst]

We have to thank the Muslims for a lot of things. Without them our understanding of science would be 500 years behind.

[chickenman]

I feel that as a Muslim and a man of science, arts and philosophy, we can all learn that no matter what religion you are, knowledge is strength and knowledge is what brings one out of ignorance and certain discoveries have aided mankind even if youre Muslim or Christian or Hindu.Altogether we are humans.If we put down the weapons and decide to think together, just imagine the Golden Age of Humans.Knowledge is strength and no one can deny it.A sword can pierce but knowledge lasts forever, even if it is a lost for a time, it will be rediscovered so I would like thank our ancestors from Asians to the Europeans for developing knowledge of one another when one of us was ignorant.This are my thoughts.

[saudiman]

Al-Khawarzmi was human .
a good one too .
that's enough .

[okthen.]

He wrote a book called " mathematics of Hind/ India" he himself never took credits and rightfully gave it to Indians ! You should give it too!!

[MeaganMadSkyentist]

I had no idea that are numerals were actually ancient Hindu, or anything about Al Kharizmi Thank you for this lesson!

[meredith]

This is just so FASCINATING. If we could go back in time and bring that man to today (and let him understand modern english), how amazed do you think he would be that we're still using his numbers and his methods? He has probably made the biggest, most lasting impact on the human race in the history of mankind. Seriously. He should at least be mentioned when kids first start learning algebra. What an incredible man.

[yabyab]

Actually what Arab use now days as numbers are Indian numbers and what the western world uses (1, 2, 3, 4...etc) are Arabic numbers. That is odd.

[mohammadal-khatib]

Let's not forget Jaaber Bin Hayyan, the father of Chemistry 🕴

[abr.caldas]

In Brazil we call them hindu-arabic numbers not just arabic.

[DrAdnan]

People focus so much on arguing the details of the past when we should focus on improving the present so we can have a better future.

[hassenesh]

Who cares if he was Arab or Persian.... The important thing is that he is a, Legend and we should remember him like we do to Einstein and Newton :)

[devamjani]

The entire number system we use today is the Hindu numerical system . Al khwarizm wrote several books on Hindu maths and Hindu knowledge and through those books, the Europeans were introduced to Hindu numerical system and from that point on, it became the official number system used through out the world forever.

[mojohns]

Interestingly, when I went to school in various states (as a military BRAT) back in the 60's, we were taught that our number system was called the"HINDU-Arabic" number system.

[awaisakram]

for me al - khawarzmi is the most underrated scientist in human history ..
without him we won't have maths nowadays ..
one of the greatest inventors for me ..

[aslidesithug]

It was invented between the 1st and 4th centuries by Indian mathematicians. The system was adopted in Arabic mathematics (also called Islamic mathematics) by the 9th century. Influential were the books of Al-Khwārizmī[3] (On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, c. 825) and Al-Kindi (On the Use of the Hindu Numerals, c. 830). The system later spread to medieval Europe by the High Middle Ages.

[mehuldineshbhaisangani]

On the very first page of his every book, he has written that "I AM JUST SHARING THE KNOWLEDGE OF HINDU CIVILIZATION".