Hacker News Comments on
Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches from the Wonderful World of Mathematics
·
2
HN comments
- This course is unranked · view top recommended courses
Hacker News Stories and Comments
All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.I read this book about the history of numbers.http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0747597162/ref=oh_details...
The book author declares the Babylonians had a base 60 system. some native cultures have none at all. (well 1 and many)
⬐ jakub_gAnother interesting read I can recommend is this one:http://www.amazon.com/Universal-History-Numbers-Georges-Ifra...
⬐ b0rsukI strongly recommend this book, it's a really fun read. It explores different ways of measuring time and items used over centuries in various cultures. It clarifies why the invention of zero was such a big deal, and why latin numerals looked like letters (same reasons as runes! They were trivial to carve on measuring sticks). Heaps of trivia! This should be a mandatory book at schools, it explains how development of mathematics affected our life, with numerous examples.More on topic, the book makes a good point how base 60 came to be. It appeared when two natural bases merged: base 12 and base 10. Base 12 is natural, because you can conveniently count to 12 using fingers of one hand. To do that, you use the thumb. Notice that each of your remaining fingers consists of 3 segments. 4 fingers left * 3 segments = 12.
Base 60 allows cultures using bases 12 and 10 to coexist. It's the least common multiple. Naturally, it ALSO made it easier to avoid fractions.
The book "Here's Looking at Euclid" (entitled "Alex's adventures in Numberland" in the UK) by Alex Bellos documents a conversation with Pierre Pica, currently investigating the Pirahã in the Amazon, a tribe that apparently has no interest in counting, and appear not to be able to count accurately:http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210392
Copyright seems to have expired on the excerpt that was in the Guardian, but it's pretty well discussed in this recent book.
You can find much of Pica's work on-line if you choose. Here is one reference:
http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/319.htm
In short, I'm unconvinced that this is sheer and pure "churnalism," or that the Amazonian tribe that cannot count" really has been refuted.
ADDED IN EDIT:
Alex's book is here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/0747597162#reader-link
and you can click on the "Search Inside" at left and search for "Pica."