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The arabic numerals, or Hindu numerals (often capitalized) are the ten digit
Digit

Digit may refer to:* Digit , one of several most proximal parts of a limb* Phone number, slang as digit, as in "Let me get your digits so I can call you tonight."...
s (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), which—along with the system by which a sequence (e.g. "406") was read as a number
Number

A number is a mathematical object used in counting and measurement. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a Numeral system, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the numeral for the number....
—were originally defined by Indian mathematicians
Indian mathematics

Indian mathematics—which here is the mathematics that emerged in South Asia from ancient times until the end of the 18th century—had its beginnings in the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization and the Iron Age Vedic culture ....
, later modified and transferred to North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
n Arab mathematicians
Islamic mathematics

Mathematics in medieval Islam or sometimes referred to as Islamic mathematics is a term used in the history of mathematics that refers to the mathematics developed in the Muslim world between 622 and 1600, in the part of the world where Islam was the dominant religion....
 and transmitted to Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, whence they spread around the world through European colonialism
Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
.






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The arabic numerals, or Hindu numerals (often capitalized) are the ten digit
Digit

Digit may refer to:* Digit , one of several most proximal parts of a limb* Phone number, slang as digit, as in "Let me get your digits so I can call you tonight."...
s (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), which—along with the system by which a sequence (e.g. "406") was read as a number
Number

A number is a mathematical object used in counting and measurement. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a Numeral system, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the numeral for the number....
—were originally defined by Indian mathematicians
Indian mathematics

Indian mathematics—which here is the mathematics that emerged in South Asia from ancient times until the end of the 18th century—had its beginnings in the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization and the Iron Age Vedic culture ....
, later modified and transferred to North Africa
North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
n Arab mathematicians
Islamic mathematics

Mathematics in medieval Islam or sometimes referred to as Islamic mathematics is a term used in the history of mathematics that refers to the mathematics developed in the Muslim world between 622 and 1600, in the part of the world where Islam was the dominant religion....
 and transmitted to Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, whence they spread around the world through European colonialism
Colonialism

Colonialism is the extension of a nation's sovereignty over Territory beyond its borders by the establishment of either settler or exploitation colony in which Indigenous people populations are direct rule, Population transfers, or Genocide....
. Today they are the most common symbolic representation of numbers in the world.

The term Arabic numerals may refer to the closely related Eastern Arabic numerals
Eastern Arabic numerals

The Eastern Arabic numerals are the symbols used to represent the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in conjunction with the Arabic alphabet in Egypt, Sudan as well as Asian non-Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India, as well as with the obsolete Ottoman Turkish alphabet ....
 (?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?) which are, to Westerners today, more closely associated with Arabic speakers than the Western Arabic numerals.

Finally, arabic numerals is the conventional name for the family of numeral
Numeral

The term numeral can refer to:* Numeral system, a system of mathematical notation for writing numbers* Number names, the words used in a language or writing system to represent numbers...
s, invented by Indian mathematician
Indian mathematics

Indian mathematics—which here is the mathematics that emerged in South Asia from ancient times until the end of the 18th century—had its beginnings in the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization and the Iron Age Vedic culture ....
s in around AD 500, which are related to or ancestral to the Western numerals. This invention, which involved zero and a decimal
Decimal

The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
 positional notation
Positional notation

A positional notation or place-value notation system is a numeral system in which each position is related to the next by a constant multiplier, Geometric progression, called the radix or radix of that numeral system....
, is considered an important milestone in the development of mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
.

One may distinguish between the positional decimal system involved in interpreting the numerals, known as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system
Hindu-Arabic numeral system

The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system first documented in ancient India no later than the ninth century, and later spread to the western world through Mathematics in medieval Islam....
, which is identical throughout the family, and the precise character
Character

Character may refer to:*Character , an agent in a work of literature, drama, opera or other works of fiction*Character , the abstraction of an observable physical or biochemical trait of an organism...
s used to write these numerals, which vary regionally. The characters most commonly used in conjunction with the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
 since Early Modern
Early modern Europe

Early modern is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Western Europe and its first colony which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century....
 times are 0
0 (number)

0 is both a number and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numeral system. It plays a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures....
 1
1 (number)

1 is a number, number names, and the name of the glyph representing that number.It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement....
 2
2 (number)

2 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3 ....
 3
3 (number)

----3 is a number, Numeral system, and glyph. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4 ....
 4
4 (number)

This article discusses the number Four. For the year 4 AD, see 4. For other uses of 4, see 4 4 is a number, numeral, and glyph....
 5
5 (number)

5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 4 and preceding 6 ....
 6
6 (number)

6 is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7 .The SI prefix for 10006 is exa , and for its reciprocal atto ....
 7
7 (number)

7 is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8 . It is the smallest positive integer to be spoken with two syllables when pronounced in English....
 8
8 (number)

8 is the natural number, following 7 and preceding 9 . The SI prefix for 10008 is yotta , and for its reciprocal yocto . It is the root of two other numbers: eighteen and eighty ....
 9
9 (number)

9 is the natural number following 8 and preceding 10 . The ordinal adjective is ninth....
.

The reason that (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) are known as arabic numerals is that they are the characters used by western Arabs from Morocco to Libya, from where they were introduced to Europe in the tenth century. The Arabs themselves call them "Hindu numerals", but this term is not restricted to the characters (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9), but also includes (?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?.?) as well.

Although the phrase "arabic numeral" is frequently capitalized, it is sometimes written in lower case, for instance in its entry in the Oxford English dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989; as of December 2008 the dictionary's current editors have completed a quarter of the third edition....
. This helps distinguish it from the East Arabic numerals specific to the Arabs.

History


Origins

The symbols for 1 to 9 in the Hindu-Arabic numeral system evolved from the Brahmi numerals. Buddhist inscriptions from around 300 BC use the symbols which became 1, 4 and 6. One century later, their use of the symbols which became 2, 7 and 9 was recorded.

The first universally accepted inscription containing the use of the 0 glyph is first recorded in the 9th century, in an inscription at Gwalior
Gwalior

Gwalior ,, is a city in Madhya Pradesh in India. It lies 76 miles south of Agra and has a population of over 12 lakh . The Gwalior metropolitan area is the 46th most populated area in the country....
 in Central India dated to 870. However, by this time, the use of the glyph had already reached Persia, and is mentioned in Al-Khwarizmi
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

Muhammad ibn Musa Khwarizmi was a Persian people mathematics, astronomer and geographer. He was born around 780 in Khwarezm, in contemporary Khiva, Uzbekistan, which was then part of the native Iranian-Khwarizmian Afrigid dynasty, and died around 850....
's descriptions of Indian numerals
Indian numerals

Most of the positional system base 10 numeral systems in the world have originated from India, which first developed the concept of positional numerology....
. Indian documents on copper plates
Indian copper plate inscriptions

Indian copper plate inscriptions play an important role in the reconstruction of the history of India. Prior to their discovery, historians were forced to rely on ambiguous archaeological findings such as religious text of uncertain origin and interpretations of bits of surviving traditions, patched together with travel journals of foreign...
, with the same symbol for zero in them, dated back as far as the 6th century AD, abound.

Indian Numerals 100ad
Egyptphonekeypad
The numeral system
Numeral system

A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numerals , and a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner....
 came to be known to both the Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi

Muhammad ibn Musa Khwarizmi was a Persian people mathematics, astronomer and geographer. He was born around 780 in Khwarezm, in contemporary Khiva, Uzbekistan, which was then part of the native Iranian-Khwarizmian Afrigid dynasty, and died around 850....
, whose book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals written about 825 in Arabic, and the Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
 mathematician Al-Kindi
Al-Kindi

, also known to the Western world by the Latinized version of his name 'Alkindus', was an Arab polymath: an Early Islamic philosophy, Islamic science, Islamic astrology, Islamic astronomy, Alchemy and chemistry in Islam, Logic in Islamic philosophy, Islamic mathematics, Arabic music, Islamic medicine, Islamic physics, Islamic psychologi...
, who wrote four volumes, "On the Use of the Indian Numerals" (Ketab fi Isti'mal al-'Adad al-Hindi) about 830, are principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
 and the West. In the 10th century, Middle-Eastern mathematicians extended the decimal numeral system to include fractions, as recorded in a treatise by Syrian mathematician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi
Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi

Abu'l Hasan Ahmad ibn Ibrahim Al-Uqlidisi was an Mathematics in medieval Islam who was active in Damascus and Baghdad.. His surname indicates, that he was a copyist of Euclids works....
 in 952–53.

In the Arab world—until modern times—the arabic numeral system was used only by mathematicians. Muslim scientists used the Babylonian numeral system
Babylonian numerals

Babylonian numerals were written in cuneiform , using a wedge-tipped Phragmites stylus to make a mark on a soft clay tablet which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create a permanent record....
, and merchants used the Abjad numerals
Abjad numerals

The Abjad numerals are a decimal numeral system in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. They have been used in the Arabic language-speaking world since before the 8th century Arabic numerals....
. It was not until Fibonacci
Fibonacci

Leonardo of Pisa , also known as Leonardo Pisano, Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo Fibonacci, or, most commonly, simply Fibonacci, was an Italy mathematician, considered by some "the most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages"....
 that the arabic numeral system was used by a large population outside India.

A distinctive West Arabic variant of the symbols begins to emerge around the 10th century in the Maghreb
Maghreb

The Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea....
 and Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
, called ghubar ("sand-table" or "dust-table") numerals, which is the direct ancestor to the modern Western Arabic numerals used throughout the world.

The first mentions of the numerals in the West are found in the Codex Vigilanus
Codex Vigilanus

The Codex Vigilanus or C?dice Albeldense , full name Codex Conciliorum Albeldensis seu Vigilanus, is an Illuminated manuscript compilation of various historical documents from the Visigothic period in Hispania....
 of 976. From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac
Pope Silvester II

Pope Sylvester II, or Silvester II , born Gerbert d'Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and pope. He introduced Islamic science of Arabic numerals, Islamic mathematics, and Islamic astronomy to Europe, reintroducing the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era....
 (later, Pope Silvester II) began to spread knowledge of the numerals in Europe. Gerbert studied in Barcelona
Barcelona

Barcelona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous communities of Spain of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008, while the population of the Metropolitan Area was 3,161,081....
 in his youth, and he is known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe
Astrolabe

astrolabe is a historical astronomical Measuring instrument used by classical astronomy, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses included locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars; determining local time given local latitude and vice-versa; surveying; and triangulation....
 from Lupitus of Barcelona
Lupitus of Barcelona

Lupitus of Barcelona, identified with a Christian archdeacon called Sunifred, was an astronomer in late 10th century Barcelona, then part of the Marca Hispanica between Islamic Al-Andalus and Christian Western_Francia ....
 after he had returned to France.

Adoption in Europe

Talhoffer Thott 140r
Petrus Astronomus Astronomical Clock in Uppsala Cathedral
Horloge Republicaine1
In 825 Al-Khwarizmi, the Persian
Persian people

Persian identity, at least in terms of language, is traced to the ancient Indo-Iranians , who arrived in parts of Greater Iran circa 2000-1500 BCE....
 scientist, wrote a treatise in Arabic, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, which was translated into Latin from Arabic in the 12th century as Algoritmi de numero Indorum, where Algoritmi, the translator's rendition of the author's name, gave rise to the word algorithm
Algorithm

In mathematics, computing, linguistics and related subjects, an algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions, often used for calculation and data processing....
 (Latin algorithmus, "calculation method").

Fibonacci, a mathematician born in the Republic of Pisa
Republic of Pisa

The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Central Italy city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries....
 who had studied in Bejaia
Béjaïa

B?ja?a or Bougie in Algerian Arabic) is a Mediterranean seaport on the Gulf of B?ja?a, capital of B?ja?a Province, northern Algeria. Under French colonial empires, it was formerly known under various European names, such as Budschaja in German, Bugia in Italian, and Bougie // ....
 (Bougie
Bougie

The name Bougie originally comes from France.This family name is spelled in very different ways like Bougie, Bougy, Bogie, Boug?, Bougis, Bouget, Baugie, Baugis, Baugy, Boughet, Boughey, Bougey, Bouggy oder Bousschij....
), Algeria
Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country of the Mediterranean sea, second largest in the Arab World, and the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area....
, promoted the Indian numeral system in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 with his book Liber Abaci
Liber Abaci

Liber Abaci is a historic book on arithmetic by Leonardo of Pisa, known later by his nickname Fibonacci. Its title has two common translations, The Book of the Abacus or The Book of Calculation....
, which was written in 1202.

"When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the customs at Bugia
Bugia

Bugia is either*A Spanish and Italian name of the presently Algerian port city of Bejaia*The Italian word for a candle, especially used as the name for an additional candle carried by a server standing beside a bishop at some Christian liturgical celebrations carried It is counted among the pontificalia....
 acting for the Pisa
Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa....
n merchants going there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still a child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians' nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it.."


The numerals are arranged with their lowest value digit to the right, with higher value positions added to the left. This arrangement was adopted identically into the numerals as used in Europe. The Latin alphabet runs from left to right, unlike the Arabic alphabet. Hence, numerals in western texts have an inverse arrangement of their glyphs relative to the direction of writing.

The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing press
Printing press

A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium , thereby transferring an image. The mechanical systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1439, based on existing screw-presses used to press cloth, grapes etc., and possibly to print wood...
, and they became commonly known during the 15th century. Early uses in Britain include a 1445 inscription on the tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex
Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Su?seaxe , is a Historic counties of England in South East England England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex....
, a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of Bray Church, Berkshire
Berkshire

Berkshire is a Home Counties in the South East England of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters patent issued confirming...
, and a 1487 inscription on the belfry door at Piddletrenthide
Piddletrenthide

Piddletrenthide is a village in west Dorset, England, situated in the River Piddle on the dip slope of the Dorset Downs, eight miles north of Dorchester, Dorset....
 church, Dorset
Dorset

Dorset , is a Counties of England in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, Dorset, situated in the south of the county at ....
 and in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 a 1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in Elgin, (Elgin, Moray
Elgin, Moray

Elgin is a former cathedral city and a former Royal Burgh in Moray, Scotland and is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the flood plain....
) Cathedral. (See G.F. Hill, The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe for more examples.) By the mid-16th century, they were in common use in most of Europe. Roman numerals remained in use mostly for the notation of Anno Domini
Anno Domini

, abbreviated as 'AD' or 'A.D.', and 'Before Christ', abbreviated as 'BC' or 'B.C.', are designations used to number years in the Julian calendar and Gregorian calendars....
 years, and for numbers on clockfaces. Sometimes, Roman numerals are still used for enumeration of lists (as an alternative to alphabetical enumeration), and numbering pages in prefatory material in books.

Evolution of symbols


The numeral system employed, known as algorism
Algorism

Algorism is the technique of performing basic arithmetic by writing numbers in place value form and applying a set of memorized rules and mathematical table to the digits....
, is positional
Positional notation

A positional notation or place-value notation system is a numeral system in which each position is related to the next by a constant multiplier, Geometric progression, called the radix or radix of that numeral system....
 decimal
Decimal

The decimal numeral system has 10 as its Base . It is the most widely used numeral system....
 notation. Various symbol sets are used to represent numbers in the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, all of which evolved from the Brahmi numerals. The symbols used to represent the system have split into various typographical variants since the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
:

  • The widespread Western Arabic numerals used with the Latin alphabet
    Latin alphabet

    The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
    , in the table below labelled European, descended from the West Arabic numerals developed in al-Andalus
    Al-Andalus

    Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
     and the Maghreb
    Maghreb

    The Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea....
    . (There are two typographic styles for rendering European numerals, known as lining figures and text figures
    Text figures

    Text figures are numeral systems typeset with varying heights in a fashion that resembles a typical line of running text, hence the name. This stands in contrast to lining, or titling figures, which are all of consistent height....
    ).
  • The Arabic-Indic or Eastern Arabic numerals
    Eastern Arabic numerals

    The Eastern Arabic numerals are the symbols used to represent the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in conjunction with the Arabic alphabet in Egypt, Sudan as well as Asian non-Arabic countries, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India, as well as with the obsolete Ottoman Turkish alphabet ....
     used with the Arabic alphabet
    Arabic alphabet

    The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
     developed primarily in what is now Iraq
    Iraq

    Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
    . A variant of the Eastern Arabic numerals used in the Persian and Urdu languages is shown as East Arabic-Indic.
  • The Devanagari numerals used with Devanagari
    Devanagari

    , or 'Nagari', is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together....
     and related variants are grouped as Indian numerals
    Indian numerals

    Most of the positional system base 10 numeral systems in the world have originated from India, which first developed the concept of positional numerology....
    .


Arabic Numerals En
The evolution of the numerals in early Europe is shown on a table created by the French scholar J.E. Montucla in his Histoire de la Mathematique, which was published in 1757:

The arabic numerals are encoded in ASCII
ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange , is a coding standard that can be used for interchanging information, if the information is expressed mainly by the written form of English words....
 (and Unicode
Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
) at positions 48 to 57:

BinaryDecHexGlyph
0011 000048300
0011 000149311
0011 001050322
0011 001151333
0011 010052344
0011 010153355
0011 011054366
0011 011155377
0011 100056388
0011 100157399


See also


  • Hindu-Arabic numeral system
    Hindu-Arabic numeral system

    The Hindu-Arabic numeral system is a positional decimal numeral system first documented in ancient India no later than the ninth century, and later spread to the western world through Mathematics in medieval Islam....
  • Numeral system
    Numeral system

    A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numerals , and a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner....
  • Counting rods
    Counting rods

    Counting rods are small bars, typically 3-14 cm long, used by mathematicians for calculation in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. They are placed either horizontally or vertically to represent any number and any fraction....
     - decimal positional numeral system with zero
  • Chinese numerals
    Chinese numerals

    Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese language. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous system of Arabic numeral system, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems....
  • Japanese numerals
    Japanese numerals

    The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language. The Japanese numerals in writing are entirely based on the Chinese numerals and the grouping of large numbers follow the China Culture of China of grouping by 10,000....
  • Roman numerals
    Roman numerals

    Roman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The system is decimal but not directly Positional notation and does not include a zero....


External links

  • . Retrieved 11 December 2005.
  • . 16 April 2005.
  • O'Connor, J. J. and Robertson, E. F. . November 2000.
  • History of the Numerals
    • :
    • :
    • :
    • at