Indo-Arabic numerals

Medieval Illustration (1508) comparing the execution of mathematical operations using an abacus (on the right) and the indo-arbid system (arithmetic, on the left).

Eastern and Western Arabic numerals in a traffic signal in Abu Dhabi

The Indo-Arabic numeral system is the common name for the current modern positional and decimal numeral system. This system was developed in India in the I century, was popularized among Arabs and Persians by Al-Khuarismi and reached Europe in the Middle Ages where the system was widely spread. Throughout the world, Indo-Arabic numerals are mostly expressed using the so-called Western Arabic numerals, but Eastern Arabic numerals are also used in the Middle East, and Indic numerals are often used in India and parts of Southeast Asia.

The Arabic numerals are the symbols most used to represent numbers. They are called "Arabs" because the Hispano-Arabs from Al-Andalus introduced them to Europe through colonized Iberia, although, in reality, their invention arose in India. The world owes to Indian culture the transcendental invention of the positional numeral system, as well as the discovery of 0 (zero), called śūnya (shuunia) or bindu in Sanskrit, although the Mayans also knew both 0 and positional numerals.. Persian mathematicians in India adopted the system, from whom the Arabs took it. By the time they began to be used in North Africa, they already had their current form, from there they were adopted in Europe in the Middle Ages. Its use increased throughout the world due to European colonization and trade.

The Arabic system has been (and is) represented using many different sets of glyphs. These glyphs can be divided into two large families: the western and the eastern Arabic numerals. Orientals, which developed in what is now Iraq, are represented in the table below as Arabic-Indic. The Eastern Arabic-Indic is a variety of the Arabic-Indic glyphs. Western Arabic numerals, developed in Al-Andalus and the Maghreb, are shown in the table as modern Arabic numerals.

In Japan, Arabic numbers and Latin alphabet are part of the writing system rōmaji . Thus, if a number is written with Arabic glyphs, in Japan they will say that "it is written in Rōmaji" as opposed to Japanese numbering.

HISTORY

The Arabic numbering system is considered one of the most significant advances in mathematics. Most historians agree that they had their origin in India (the Arabs refer to this numbering system as "Indian numbers"), expanded through the Islamic world and from there, via al-Andalus, to the rest of the Europe.

It is speculated that the origin of the Base 10 positional system used in India had its origins in China. The Chinese Hua Ma system (see Chinese numbering) is also positional and base 10 and could have served as inspiration for the system that emerged in India. This hypothesis becomes strength due to the fact that the Indian numerical system was developed between the 5 and centuries (period during the Vso and a large influx of Buddhist pilgrims between China and India. What is true is that in the time of Bhaskara I (century VII </s 10 with 9 glyphs and the concept of zero was known, represented by a point.

This numbering system reached the Middle East towards the year 670. Muslim mathematics of the current Iraq, such as al-juarismi, were already familiar with the Babylonian numbering, which used zero between digits other than zero (although not after different digits from zero), so the new system did not have a good reception. In the century x Arab mathematicians included in their numbering system the fractions. Al-Juarismi wrote the book about the calculations with the numbers of India towards the year 825 and al-Kindi wrote the use of the numbers of India. His work was very important in the dissemination of the Indian system in the Middle East and in the west.

The first mentions of these numerals in Western literature are found in the codex vigilanus of the year 976. From 980, Gerberto de Aurillac (later Pope with the name of Silvestre II) He made use of his papal position to disseminate the knowledge of the system in Europe. Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician who had studied in bugy (in the current Algeria), contributed to the dissemination of Europe of the Arabian system with his book Liber Abaci , published in 1202. Among the first countries was great Brittany, having written as, for example, one in linen of the Church of Braye of 1448 in Berkshire (England) and one in Scotland of 1470 in the tomb of Eral de Huntly. In central Europe, the king of Hungary Ladislao the Posthumous began using Arabic numbers, recording a real document of 1456.

However, it was not until the invention of mobile types printing by Gutenberg in 1450 when this numbering system began to generalize in Europe; For the century XVI It was used with some amplitude. On the other hand, the Arabic numbers replaced the Cyrodyage Number in Russia around 1700, when they were introduced by the Pedro I Tsar of Russia.

Interestingly, in the Muslim world only mathematicians used the Arabic numbering system until relatively recent times. Scientists used the Babylonian system and merchants the Greek and Hebrew systems.