Ana Daniela Soto

Math 2010
Professor Diaz
October 10, 2016
Numeration Essay

The Egyptian and the Indo-Arabic system have some similarities and differences. The
Egyptian System was developed as early as 3400 B.C. It was developed as a system for
recording numbers on stone tablets using hieroglyphics by the Egyptians. The Indo-Arabic
system is also known as the decimal system. The Indo-Arabic system was invented as early as
800 B.C. by East Indian scholars. The Indo-Arabic system was transmitted to The the Western
world by Arabs.
The Egyptian system was based on the number 10 just like the system we currently use,
Indo-Arabic. Both of these systems were created based on the number 10, because we have 10
fingers. The Egyptians had symbols for up to the 6th power of 10 and then they combined
symbols additively to represent other numbers that were higher.

The Egyptian system uses the symbols of a staff, yoke, scroll, lotus flower, pointing
finger, fish, and an amazed person to represent powers of 10. The symbols used in the IndoArabic system are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and they are called digits. With these 10 symbols and the
idea of positional notation, all that is needed to write the numeral for any whole number is the
value of each digit and the value of the position the digit occupies in the numeral. The positional
value in the decimal system is as shown below.