Dettagli

DescrizioneMaya add.png	English: The equation "5 + 8 equal 13" written with Maya numerals
Data	6 dicembre 2006 (data di caricamento originaria)
Fonte	Trasferito da en.wikipedia su Commons da Trixt utilizzando CommonsHelper.
Autore	Mdsats di Wikipedia in inglese
Altre versioni	Questa immagine (categorizzazione automatica: text) o tutte le immagini in questa categoria o galleria dovrebbero essere ricreate usando grafica vettoriale come file SVG. Questo offre diversi vantaggi: vedi Commons:Media for cleanup per maggiori informazioni. Se è disponibile una versione in formato SVG di questa immagine, per favore caricala. Dopo aver caricato un file SVG, sostituisci questo avviso con il template {{Vector version available|nome_immagine.svg}}.

Maya Mathematics

Instead of ten digits like we have today, the Maya used a base number of 20. (Base 20 is vigesimal.) They also used a system of bar and dot as "shorthand" for counting. A dot stood for one and a bar stood for five. In the following table, you can see how this works. 0 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19

Because the base of the number system was 20, larger numbers were written down in powers of 20. We do that in our decimal system too: for example 32 is 3×10+2. In the Maya system, this would be 1×20+12, because they used 20 as base.

Numbers were written from bottom to top. Below you can see how the number 32 was written:

20's (1) 1's (12)

It was very easy to add and subtract using this number system, but they did not use fractions. Here's an example of a simple addiMaya Mathematics Instead of ten digits like we have today, the Maya used a base number of 20. (Base 20 is vigesimal.) They also used a system of bar and dot as "shorthand" for counting. A dot stood for one and a bar stood for five. In the following table, you can see how this works. 0 1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19

Because the base of the number system was 20, larger numbers were written down in powers of 20. We do that in our decimal system too: for example 32 is 3×10+2. In the Maya system, this would be 1×20+12, because they used 20 as base.

Numbers were written from bottom to top. Below you can see how the number 32 was written:

20's (1) 1's (12)

It was very easy to add and subtract using this number system, but they did not use fractions. Here's an example of a simple addition:

8000's 400's 20's + = 1's

9449 + 10425 = 19874 

As you can see, adding is just a matter of adding up dots and bars! Maya merchants often used cocoa beans, which they laid out on the ground, to do these calculations.

If you have a Java-enabled browser, you will see an interactive number converter below. Fill in the a number in the top field, and press return to find its Maya equivalent.. Press +1 and -1 to change the number by one.

tion:

8000's 400's 20's + = 1's

9449 + 10425 = 19874 

As you can see, adding is just a matter of adding up dots and bars! Maya merchants often used cocoa beans, which they laid out on the ground, to do these calculations.

If you have a Java-enabled browser, you will see an interactive number converter below. Fill in the a number in the top field, and press return to find its Maya equivalent.. Press +1 and -1 to change the number by one.

Licenza

Quest'opera è stata rilasciata nel pubblico dominio dal suo autore, Mdsats di Wikipedia in inglese. Questa norma si applica in tutto il mondo. In alcuni paesi questo potrebbe non essere legalmente possibile. In tal caso: Mdsats garantisce a chiunque il diritto di utilizzare quest'opera per qualsiasi scopo, senza alcuna condizione, a meno che tali condizioni siano richieste dalla legge.Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse

Registro originale del caricamento

• 2006-12-06 22:06 Mdsats 400×94× (2865 bytes) The equation "5 + 8 = 13" written with Maya numerals