Friday 30 December 2011

Sumerian Numerals

Sumerian Numbers :
    As the history told, the sumerians might have been invented their writing during 4th to 2nd millennia BC. Their number systems was a base 60 or sexagesimal system.
The sumerian number system consists only two numerals, the one and ten. Their place value system is read from the right, increased by a factor of 60.

1

10



Example:
The below example will help you to know the Arabic(base ten) number represented in sumerian:

The above example is represented as:
10 + 1 + 1      1 + 1 + 1      10
12 x 602      3 x 601      10 x 600
12 x 3600 + 3 x 60 + 10
43200 + 180 + 10 = 43390

The main drawback of the sumerian number system is the way to represent zero is not mentioned.
Example:
The below example cannot be identified what kind of representation it makes, whether 342, 3420, 3402, or any other number variation, somehow it will intend to have some meaning from the context.

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