Chapter 12 Section 5 Decimal Value System Notation

There was once a joke that said that in ancient times, there was a man who learned arithmetic from a teacher. He learned the character "one" on the first day, the character "two" on the second day, and the character "three" on the third day.On the fourth day, before the teacher taught him, he said: "I have already learned how to count", so he bid farewell to the teacher and went home.One day, a guest came to his house, and his father boasted to the guest that his son was smart. He learned to count in three days, and asked the guest to test him face to face.The guest asked him to write a large number. After a long time, he saw that he was sweating profusely and hadn't finished writing. When he walked over to take a look, he saw "one" was crossed all over the paper.When asked what he was doing, he said, "The number you gave is too big, and I haven't finished writing it yet!" Although the joke is ridiculous, it can also be imagined how to describe the notation of large numbers if there is no place value system. and writing?

Like other ancient civilizations in the world, the counting method in ancient China is also based on the decimal system, which is probably related to the fact that human beings have 10 fingers.In ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt, sexagesimal notation was produced.Although ancient China did not use the sexagesimal notation method for calculations, it also had a system of tracking the dates and years of the stems and branches, with 60 as a cycle.Behind these similarities, there are differences between countries.China is the first country to use nine digits (see Table 1) plus ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand and other place value symbols to write any number, such as 300 writing

China's decimal value system notation sprouted in the late Neolithic Age, was widely used in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and was skillfully applied to computational mathematics in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.Later, this numbering method was introduced to India along with cultural exchanges, and then to Arabia via India, and then to Europe, and evolved into the Indian-Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, ...) commonly used in the world today.The decimal value system notation is an indelible contribution of China to world civilization. As Dr. Needham of the United Kingdom pointed out: "Without this decimal system, it is almost impossible to have the unified world we are now. .”