My cousin, Guy, sent me this interesting little download about the history of Arabic numerals. (Click here to view.) (This is not working for everyone, so I've added the two relevant slides as pictures) I was suspicious about it because the 7 and 9 seemed a bit contrived, so I did a little research. It appears that, just as I suspected, the line through 7 is a recent innovation, and the little curlicue on the bottom of the 9, though it does add angles, doesn't show up in any historical examples I've been able to find.
The download is interesting, however. The fact that someone would take the trouble to put this little theory together in a power point, and then send it out to everyone in general and no one in particular, says something about our need to make logical sense of the world, and then to communicate what we've discovered, even if it doesn't quite fit all the facts. And I have a modest example of my own.
I've always wondered how it happened that the names of the continents all begin with A: Asia, Africa, Australia, Antarctica, and the two Americas. – It’s true that Europe doesn't fit the pattern, but then it's really a political/cultural division of Asia rather than a true geographical continent. – Is this a fascinating mystery or just some meaningless
coincidence?
My research seems to indicate that it's a meaningless coincidence, and a lifetime of experience suggests that our lives are filled with meaningless coincidences. Which leads, of course, to the mother of all questions; CAN ALL THESE MEANINGLESS COINCIDENCES BE JUST A COINCIDENCE?
Still workin' on it.
3 comments:
Hi Dan
The link to arabic numbers just takes me to the gmail start page. I assume that wasn't the planned destination, and I would like to look at the intended page
Mary
Thanks for the feedback, Mary. It works on my laptop but not on our other computer so I'll have to try and sort this out. Reminds me of that thing Jesus said about the blind leading the blind. Jesus said something about almost everything, but he doesn't seem to have said anything about how to embed a power point presentation in your blog. O well, Google probably knows. I'll get right back to you.
I don't believe in meaningless coincidences. I may not understand the why, what or how, or anything else for that matter, but if God is all knowing....
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