概要
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.
ライセンス
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
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この著作物は、著作者である英語版ウィキペディアのMdsatsさんによって権利が放棄され、パブリックドメインとされました。これは全世界で適用されます。 一部の国では、これが法的に可能ではない場合があります。その場合は、次のように宣言します。 Mdsatsは、あらゆる人に対して、法により必要とされている条件を除き、如何なる条件も課すことなく、あらゆる目的のためにこの著作物を使用する権利を与えます。Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
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元のアップロードログ
元のファイルページは
こちら。以下の利用者は全てen.wikipediaに属します。
- 2006-12-06 22:06 Mdsats 400×94× (2865 bytes) The equation "5 + 8 = 13" written with Maya numerals