Reckonings

Download or read book Reckonings written by Stephen Chrisomalis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Insights from the history of numerical notation suggest that how humans write numbers is an active choice involving cognitive and social factors. Over the past 5,000 years, more than 100 methods of numerical notation--distinct ways of writing numbers--have been developed and used by specific communities. Most of these are barely known today; where they are known, they are often derided as cognitively cumbersome and outdated. In Reckonings, Stephen Chrisomalis considers how humans past and present use numerals, reinterpreting historical and archaeological representations of numerical notation and exploring the implications of why we write numbers with figures rather than words.