A brief history of numerical systems - Alessandra King

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... and 0. With just these ten symbols, we can write any rational number imaginable. But why these particular symbols? Why ten of them? And why do we arrange them the way we do? Alessandra King gives a brief history of numerical systems.

Lesson by Alessandra King, animation by Zedem Media.

[san-chil]

Zero was first used in India by Indians as a NUMBER and hence India is generally given the credit for Zero. Mayans, Babylonians and most likely Indians as well used it earlier, but only as a placeholder and not a number. It was Brahmagupta who elevated zero to the status of a number and formally stated mathematical rules to use it as a number. Aryabhatta also may have been aware of zero as a number but all of his original work has been lost.

Why is it Called the Indian-Arabic Numeral System?

Fibonacci called this system the “the Modus Indorum” or “method of the Indians” (the Brahmi and Hindu) and introduced it in his masterwork Liber Abaci (1202).

Fibonacci calls the Indian-Arabic numeral system “the method of the Indians” because the system originated in India. It was then brought to the middle-east by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. Thus today we call it the Indian-Arabic system after the two cultures who developed the system before us.

The omission and whitewashing of Brahmagupta and India's contribution to the numerical system seems to be a very deliberate act. Observe how facts of zero's use as a number is deliberately misrepresented and misguided and falsely attributed to the Mayans and other cultures. Mayans and other older cultures used it as a placeholder and not a number.

At the end of the day this is merely pop culture and all the misrepresentations stated here in wonderful graphics becomes the truth. Nobody would care for scholarly articles such as Liber Abaci by Fibonacci.

[LeaD]

The graphic design and the animation are so good on this one! Seriously, Ted, give my sincere congratulations to the person who drew this.

[abdullahmoiz]

Ted has some of the best animations on YouTube

[karthickjayaraman]

Isn't the '0' invented in Ancient India, by Aryabhattta ?

[ajaysabarish]

It's not the 8th century but in the 2nd century, Bakshali Manuscript dated to 2nd century has mentioned symbols for digits 0-9. Al Kwarizmi in his book "Counting with Hindu numerals" mentioned the decimal system so it must have been mentioned before that.

[thestarprincess]

someone give the animator of this video an award

[napoleonbonapartelempereur]

"We Owe A Lot To Indians Who Tauht Us How To Count Without Which No Worthwhile Scientific Discovery Could Have Been Possible"-Albert Einstein...

[yashvardhanrautela]

2:06 thanks for showing the correct map of India

[MedEighty]

This makes me grateful that I live at a time when the modern number system is already in place.

[_._enril_._]

This video is so asthetically pleasing. I love the simple shapes in every transition and shot.

[MINNIX]

THIS MAKES MATHS so more enjoyable, and calm

[ninadpurani]

I guess Indian mathematician Aryabhatta was the inventor of the number 0 not the Mayans.

[AnoopCheeroth]

Indians Invented it and Arabs spread it.
Didn't Zero also come from India?

[Merthalophor]

there are 10 kinds of people
those who know binary and those who don't and...
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those who didn't expect this was a base 3 joke

[danielrhouck]

To write any rational number using our standard notation, you also need a negative sign (−) and some way of representing division (such as ÷ or fractions with a horizontal bar or slash)

[debdipchatterjee]

The zero that ew use today was invented by Brahmagupta. In the Mayan civilisation zero was just another digit but Brahmagupta developed the 4 important properties of zero which were- 1) No result in addition, 2) No result in subtraction, 3) Multiplication results in zero and 4) Division by this number is not defined.

[kaykay]

Credits to Arybhatta who invented zero(0)... Excellent animation, btw!

[melkermillton]

One of the most beautiful and well explained videos I have ever seen.
Thank you TED-ed!

[Welivecurious]

अद्भुत ! सभी पेरेंट्स को देखना चाहिए यह वीडियो और अपने बच्चों से इस बारे मैं बात करनी चाहिए। मैथ क्यूरोसिटी के बहुत जगह है घर पर होने वाली बातचीत मैं Homeschoolers मैं Math Curiosity पैदा करने के लिए हम भी प्राइमरी के बच्चों के साथ काम और कोशिशें कर रहे हैं

[gbulmer]

There is a (common) error starting at 1:12. Roman Numerals, did *not* follow the rule _"if a numeral appeared before one with a higher value it would be subtracted instead of added"._ That rule was added much later, AFAIK by stone masons in order to make years more compact on buildings etc. Roman Numerals, as used by Romans, would write 8 as VIII and not IIX, and 90 as LXXXX and not XC. This ensure arithmetic is easy, and an abacus is easy to use.