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Counting Systems

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Numbers Through the Ages

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Abstract

Our counting system is based on the number ten. Why just ten? Probably because we have ten fingers. Finger counting is widespread among both primitive and civilised peoples (see Figure 1).

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Notes And References

  1. H Vedder, Die Bergdama (Hamburg, 1923) p. 165.

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  2. A. Seidenberg, ‘The Diffusion of Counting Practices’, University of California Publications in Mathematics 3, 4 (1960), 216.

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  3. S. S. Dorman, Pygmies and Bushmen of the Kalahari (London, 1925) p. 61.

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  4. K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894) pp. 406–7, (translated by Margot McIntosh).

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  5. Seidenberg, op. cit., p. 218.

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  6. Ibid., pp. 218–9.

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  7. From Theodor Kluge, Zahlenbegriffe der Völker Amerikas, Nordeurasiens, der Munda, und der Palaioafrikaner (Berlin, 1939) p. 223.

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  9. Ibid., p. 69.

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  10. O. Neugebauer, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity (Brown University Press, 1957).

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  11. Menninger, op. cit., p. 49.

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  13. Menninger, op. cit., p. 36.

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  14. Seidenberg, op. cit., p. 263.

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  15. Menninger, op. cit., p. 36.

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  16. Seidenberg, op. cit., p. 270.

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  17. Menninger, op. cit., p. 223.

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  18. From C. Zaslavsky, Africa Counts (Prindle, Weber, and Schmidt, 1973) p. 18.

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  19. Menninger, op. cit., p. 224.

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  20. Ibid., p. 223.

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  21. Menninger, op. cit., p. 39.

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  22. From Menninger, op. cit., p. 226.

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  23. G. Trevelyan, History of England, 2nd edn (Longman, Green, 1942) p. 125.

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  24. Menninger, op. cit., p. 237.

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  25. From C. R. Jossett, Money in Britain (Warne, 1962) p. 17.

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  26. Ibid., pp. 91–2.

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  27. From Menninger, op. cit., p. 244.

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  28. Ibid., pp. 253–4.

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  29. Ibid., pp. 254.

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  30. Zasvlasky, op. cit., pp. 93–5.

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  31. Menninger, op. cit.,p. 256.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Open University, UK

    Graham Flegg (Reader in the History of Mathematics)

Authors
  1. Graham Flegg
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Open University, UK

    Graham Flegg (Reader in the History of Mathematics) (Reader in the History of Mathematics)

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© 1989 The Open University

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Flegg, G. (1989). Counting Systems. In: Flegg, G. (eds) Numbers Through the Ages. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20177-8_2

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