Arabic Numeral Origins

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-08-09 02:16am

Wow, I never knew that. Clever, and it explains why sevens can be crossed!

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-08-09 02:27am

sevens are supposed to be crossed, and ones are supposed to have little diagonal lines at the top. ask any continental european.

this site once again proves that modern arabs are fucking idiots who went from being the worlds pinnacle of scientific and mathematical knowledge to being dumbfucks who cant grasp basic logic.

Johonebesus · Post by **Johonebesus** » 2003-08-09 03:06am

The only problem is "Arabic" numerals were invented in India and originally looked very different. Numerals in modern Arabic are also very different than the Western style.

Alright, I went looking and found the following pictures at http://www.omniglot.com/. These images agree with other sources on the web and the sources I have here at home.

Here are modern Arabic numerals:

Here are the ancient ancestors of our modern numerals:

He is right that the Medieval Arabs were great mathematicians, but his theory on the origin of the numerals seems like total BS.

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-09 01:22pm

and is wrong, as you just pointed out Johone, we use the arabic numeral system, but our actual numbers are quite different.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-08-09 01:27pm

Ahh, ok then...

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2003-08-09 01:31pm

Last time I checked, our numerals are more specifically called Modern Western Arabic. The ones Johonebesus posted are Modern Eastern Arabic.

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-08-09 11:21pm

Hmm...this make me wonder, is the xero round because it has no angles?