Tradition · mathematical tradition
The decimal place-value numerals
Nine digits, a zero, and position carrying value — worked out in India by the sixth century, stated as a complete arithmetic by Brahmagupta in 628 including rules for operating with zero and with negative quantities, and carried into Arabic mathematics from the eighth century as al-arqam al-hindiyya.
- Function
- Science & medicine
- Confidence
- Not assessed
Worth knowing
The oldest undisputed zero in the system is in the Gwalior inscription of 876, though the Bakhshali manuscript may be far older. Europe called the result algorism after al-Khwarizmi and resisted it for three centuries: Florence banned the numerals from account books in 1299 as too easy to falsify.
Connections (1)
- TransmissionCórdoba
Arabic mathematics called the decimal place-value digits al-arqam al-hindiyya, the Indian figures, and carried them west to al-Andalus, where Latin Europe met them. Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, learned them in Catalonia in the 960s and failed to get them adopted; it took Fibonacci, Italian merchants and three more centuries. Florence banned them from account books in 1299 on the ground that a nought was too easy to alter.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Hindu–Arabic numeral system”. Brahmagupta, Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (628); Kim Plofker, Mathematics in India (2009); Georges Ifrah, The Universal History of Numbers.
Open The decimal place-value numerals in the repository →