Lecture on the History of Mathematics

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: count the fingers on both hands and repeat those on one, by the first combination would be formed the quinary scale, and by the latter, the denary with the quinary scale subordinate. The use of two hands in separating objects into pairs, and the prevalence of binary combinations in the human body, would...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: count the fingers on both hands and repeat those on one, by the first combination would be formed the quinary scale, and by the latter, the denary with the quinary scale subordinate. The use of two hands in separating objects into pairs, and the prevalence of binary combinations in the human body, would also naturally, lead to another scale of numeration. All of these scales being formed upon natural combinations, are the only systems of numeration which have ever met with general adoption. Of all the systems of numerical words that of Thibet, possesses the most simple structure, and makes the nearest approach to arithmetical notation of local value. The first twenty-nine numerals are 1 Cheic 11 Chucheic 21 Gnea-cheic 2 Gnea 12 Chugnea 22 Gnea-gnea 3 Soom 13 Chusurn 23 Gnea-soom 4 Zea 14 Chuzea 24 Gnea-zea 5 Gna 15 Chugna 25 Gnea-gna G Tree 16 Chutree 26 Gnea-tree 7 Toon 17 Chutoon 27 Gnea-toon 8 Ghe 18 Chugbe 28 Gnea-ghe 9 Goo 19 Chugoo 29 Gnea-goo 10 Chuturnbha 20 Gnea-chutumbha Here the numerals from ten to nineare formed by the combination of the first syllable of the word for ten, with the names of the first nine numbers; but from twenty-one to twenty-nine, the name for two, gnea, acquires a value from position, in a manner which bears the closest analogy to our present system of notation. The Chinese possess a ve'y extensive and perfect system of numeration. In alphabetical languages, there is no connexion between numerical words, and numerical symbols, the latter being always of subsequent invention to the former. But the Chinese numerals being either simple elements, or composed of them, like other characters, are transformed to the oral language, upon the same principles, by which monosyllabic sounds are attached to all their characters. ...