The Digamma looks like a double Gamma which represents 3. Other multiples and fractions can be created by apices.Īlphanumeric system of numbers, 2 versions for 6. The second system uses the Greek alphabet and three Phoenician letters for the 27 symbols used to represent the numbers from 1 to 10, the tenths from 20 to 100 and the hundreds from 200 to 900. Prometheus: Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of With Archimedes many more can enter in the Paradise or the Hell. This shows that Daniel could count only up to 100 million the largest number that could be represented by conventional Greek numbers. The court was seated, and the books were opened. Thousands upon thousands attended him ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The system is also called acrophonic from acron and phone (topmost voice)Ī river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.
A Mixture of the symbols D and T is used to symbolize Deka Talents ie. The system is used to represent money or weight units, accomplished by the initial letter of the denoting word: T for Talent. Other numbers are represented by the basic ones by juxtaposition. The first Herodianic, found in inscriptions and laws since the 5 th century BC represents basic numbers by the first letter of the denoting word: P for five (penta), D for ten (deka) etc. Strange enough even if 10 was a special number the Greeks used two rather complex systems of number representation. And so the Pythagoreans used to invoke the Tetrad as their most binding oath: `By him that gave to our generation the Tetractys, which contains the fount and root of eternal nature.'" ( Aetius I. So that the number by the unit resides in the number 10, but potentially in the number 4. And if one exceeds the tetrad, one will exceed 10 too. This is the reason: if one starts at the unit (1) and adds the successive number up to 4, one will make up the number 10 (1+2+3+4 = 10). And again, Pythagoras maintains, the power of the number 10 lies in the number 4, the tetrad. All Greeks and all barbarians alike count up to ten, and having reached ten revert again to the unity. Boethius looks very proud, he is ready while the poor Pythagoras still tries to find the solution. Pythagoras uses an Abacus, while Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480 AD-524 AD) uses Numerals from India. A Symbolic Image: Boethius and Pythagoras in a mathematical Competition. It seems to us that after the invention of writing the largest discovery was the use by humanity of the so-called decimal notation.