OCT 14, 2024

Worldbuilding, Arithmetic

<aside> 📒 Notes on existing and designed numeral systems, compiled for using in worldbuilding

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Cuneiform Numbers: oldest and used the longest

cuneiform (”wedges”) on clay tablets, used for inventorization and accounting
- tablets were actually pretty small, smaller than a palm
- used for about 3k years
base 60 number system
- Babylonian system, still widely used.
- Call people “chronians” to reflect that they invented 60 second into a minute, 60 minutes into an hour
- 360 degrees in a circle – which may stem from subdividing a circle into hexagon with further subdivision into triangles

Babylonian numerals: grouping of two types of wedges in two rows, up to 59

uses two types of wedges: the first (narrow strokes) groups in 3x3 square, adding up to 9, the other (wide) groups in two rows, up to 5. Numbers between 1-59 are written in those two columns
60+ numbers are represented with an extra column. It’s kinda positional system, when writing 19 means 1*60 + 9 (sexagesimal)
The symbol for “0” was introduced later and used only for marking skipped column (that occurred in later mathematical text and was used only for the middle)

“the best way to count”: binary