Base 10 (Decimal) Numbering system

• The Indian culture developed the decimal system. The Mohenjo Daro culture of the Indus valley was using a form of decimal numbering some 5000 years ago. Succeeding cultural changes in this area developed the decimal system into a rigorous numbering system, including the use of zero by the Hindu mathematicians some 1500 years ago. The digits we use for the decimal system are the Arabic/Indian digits of 0 thru 9. Each number occupies a place value. When 1 is reached, the value goes to 0 and 1 is added to the next place value.

  • 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,etc

• Each place value to the left is equal to 10 times the place value to the right which implies that each place value to the right is equal to the place value to the left divided by10.

  • continuing infinitely <- 100000,10000,1000,100,10,1

  • The decimal point allow for the place value to continue in a consistent manner with groups smaller than one.

  • 0.1, 0.01, 0.001, 0.0001, 0.00001 -> continuing infinitely. This gives great precision for a number. The precision gained from this numbering system played no small part in the development of the calculus.

  • A zero was used in the decimal system to represent nothing of a particular place value.

• The use of 10 digits for a numbering system may be seen to arise from counting on our 10 fingers. Count on your fingers up to ten, put a mark in the sand and continue counting on fingers.

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Last update on 01/26/98

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