Indian decimal place-value numerals
Numeración decimal posicional india
- Date
- c. 450 CE · confidence medium
- Place
- Ujjain and Pataliputra, India
- Credited to
- Indian mathematicians; used by Aryabhata (499 CE)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A system with nine digits and a zero, where the value of each sign depends on its position in powers of ten. It allows any number to be represented with ten signs and calculation algorithms to be carried out on paper.
Chinese counting rods (4th century BCE) were already decimal and positional, but without a written digit for zero until later; the Gwalior inscription (876) is the first indisputable one with a zero.
What it led to
- Algorithms for addition, multiplication and square roots teachable to anyone
- High-precision Indian astronomy and trigonometry (sine)
- Medieval commercial accounting and quantitative science via Islam
- The numerals used today across the whole planet
Built on
- Brahmi scriptc. 250 BCE
- Zero as a number (India)628
- Brahmi numerals
- Chinese counting rods
Made possible
- Kuttaka: solving linear Diophantine equations499
- Al-Khwarizmi algebrac. 820
- Double-entry bookkeeping1340
- Pascaline1642-1645
- Arabic numerals
- Trigonometric tables