The Mayan Number System

In my opinion, the Mayan Number System is the hardest number system to comprehend. This system, like all the others, uses symbols to represent numbers. Even though this system uses lines and dots, it is alot more confusing than you would think.

Here is a picture of numbers 0-19 in Mayan Symbols to help you visualize the whole number system:

The Mayan Number System is postional, has a symbol for zero, and is a base 20 system. It is postional, which means that the symbols have to be in order for you to understand which number you are trying to figure out. This number system, unlike the others, has a symbol for the number zero. Also, this system is a base 20 system. This means that that numbers are grouped by 20's.

Here is a link to a website to help you better understand the Mayan Number System.

Examples:

The Babylonian Number System

As we learned in class, the Babylonian Number System is a little bit harder to understand than the Attic-Greek System. The Babylonian system also deals with symbols to represent numbers.

Here is a picture of the Babylonian System to help visualize what it looks like:

The Babylonian Number system is Contextual, positional, and a base 60 system. Contextual means to be determined by or in context. Depending on how many items you are counting, the symbols you are using could stand for higher numbers. In this system, the symbols are positional, which means that the order of the symbols is important. This system is a base 60 system. Base 60 means that the grouping of the numbers is done by 60's. There is also no zero involved in this system.


Here is a link to a website to better explain how the Babylonian System actually works.


Examples: 

The Attic-Greek Number System

Last week in class, we learned about 4 different number systems. The one that I personally found the easiest one to understand was the Attic-Greek Number System(Also known as the Roman System).

Here is a picture of the Attic-Greek System to help visualize what it looks like:

The Attic-Greek system is Non-Postional and does not have a zero involved in it. Non-positional means that no matter how you arrange the symbols when you write them down, the position of the numbers does not matter. Zeroes are not involved because that is just the way the Greek People decided to make it. This system is also a base ten system which means that the grouping of the numbers is done by 10's.

This site helps to show how each number is represented, how to find out what different numbers are, and it shows good graphics in how to write the symbols down.

Examples: