Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History

Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History
ISBN-10
026236087X
ISBN-13
9780262360876
Series
Reckonings
Category
Mathematics
Pages
288
Language
English
Published
2020-12-15
Publisher
MIT Press
Author
Stephen Chrisomalis

Description

Insights from the history of numerical notation suggest that how humans write numbers is an active choice involving cognitive and social factors. Over the past 5,000 years, more than 100 methods of numerical notation--distinct ways of writing numbers--have been developed and used by specific communities. Most of these are barely known today; where they are known, they are often derided as cognitively cumbersome and outdated. In Reckonings, Stephen Chrisomalis considers how humans past and present use numerals, reinterpreting historical and archaeological representations of numerical notation and exploring the implications of why we write numbers with figures rather than words.

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