Resum

DescripcióMaya add.png	English: The equation "5 + 8 equal 13" written with Maya numerals
Data	6 de desembre de 2006 (original upload date)
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Autor	Mdsats de la Viquipèdia en anglès
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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.

Llicència

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• 2006-12-06 22:06 Mdsats 400×94× (2865 bytes) The equation "5 + 8 = 13" written with Maya numerals