00:00welcome back to the origin story numbers are everywhere in our daily lives from telling time
00:13to managing money to measuring space but have you ever wondered where they came from today
00:19we're taking you on a journey through the incredible history of numbers a story that
00:24spans over 20 000 years and involves countless cultures and civilizations early beginnings
00:31the earliest evidence of numbers is as old as human civilization itself archaeologists have
00:37discovered artifacts with tally marks such as the lobombo bone found in swaziland which is over 20
00:43000 years old these early marks likely represented counting basic things like days or animals but as
00:51societies became more complex so did their need for numbers in ancient mesopotamia around 3000 bce
00:57the sumerians developed one of the first known number systems they used a base 60 or sexagesimal
01:04system why 60 it's a highly divisible number you can divide it by one two three four five and six
01:11without getting fractions this system influenced the way we measure time today with 60 seconds in a
01:17minute and 60 minutes in an hour the egyptians and practical math around the same time the ancient
01:25egyptians developed their own number system the egyptians needed a practical way to manage their
01:30agriculture construction projects and trade so they created a numbering system based on powers of 10
01:37they had unique symbols for 1 10 100 1000 and so on this decimal based system was a precursor to the
01:45base 10 system most of us use today the egyptians used numbers for a variety of purposes they calculated
01:52areas for land surveys measured goods for trade and even kept records for taxation however their system
02:00lacked place value meaning that they needed a new symbol for each power of 10 this made calculations
02:05cumbersome but it was an essential step in the evolution of mathematics the invention of zero in
02:12ancient india one of the most important milestones in the history of numbers was the concept of zero
02:18this idea emerged around the 5th century ce in ancient india indian mathematicians particularly
02:25in the region of modern-day gujarat developed the concept of zero both as a placeholder and as a
02:31number in its own right this allowed them to express large numbers and perform calculations with ease
02:37something no previous number system had managed as effectively the indian numeral system which
02:44included zero was revolutionary it made it possible to perform complex calculations and laid the groundwork
02:50for algebra and arithmetic as we know them this system eventually traveled to the middle east where it
02:57gained the name arabic numerals due to the role of arab mathematicians in spreading it further
03:03the arabs and the spread of numbers to europe by the 8th century ce the hindu numeral system had made
03:11its way to the middle east where it was further developed by arab mathematicians the persian scholar
03:16al-kwarizmi played a key role in popularizing these numerals writing extensively on their use in
03:22mathematics through his work and others the system spread to europe in europe this new system was met with
03:29resistance at first roman numerals were still widely used but they were cumbersome for calculations
03:35over time though the practicality of the hindu arabic numeral system won out by the 13th century thanks
03:43to mathematicians like leonardo of pisa better known as fibonacci europe began to adopt this new system
03:49especially for commerce and trade roman numerals and their legacy though replaced by the more efficient
03:55hindu arabic numerals roman numerals left a lasting legacy roman numerals are still seen today in places
04:02like clock faces movie titles and book chapters they remind us of an era when numbers were directly tied
04:09to physical counting methods the roman numeral system was additive and used letters such as i v x l
04:16and c to represent values while useful for simple counting they were not ideal for more complex calculations
04:23modern day numbers and beyond today numbers have evolved far beyond simple counting we have
04:29entire fields of mathematics from calculus to statistics based on numbers with the advent of computers
04:36binary code has become a new language of numbers using just zeros and ones to store and process
04:41massive amounts of information numbers are now used to create everything from art to artificial intelligence
04:48the story of numbers is a testament to human innovation and adaptability from tally marks
04:54on ancient bones to complex algorithms driving modern technology numbers have been essential to our
05:00progress so the next time you glance at a clock swipe through your phone or calculate your budget
05:06remember that you're part of a long rich history of numbers that stretches back thousands of years
05:13years thanks for watching if you enjoyed this journey through history be sure to like subscribe and stay
05:19tuned for more fascinating topics on the origin story
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