Who invented the number system?

Question

and the design or symbol for each number?

I find it amazing.

Answer 1

Our current system is Indian in origin. The symbols are theirs as well, with slight changes over time. For instance, their symbol for zero was a small dot that became the current "0" and their three was reversed, like a sort-of-cursively-written capital E, but was eventually flipped here in the West (in Europe).

The true invention on their part was a formal zero as a number, not just as a placekeeper. The Babylonians had a zero as a placeholder in 1800 BC, but it was similar to having a number like "40" so you knew the "4" was 4x10, not 4x1. Interestingly, they used a dot sometimes. However, this was not a zero that could be used in calculations or abstractly. It was just a placeholder to make work with an abacus easier to do (no need to stop and evaluate context hoping to define the line the "4" belonged to on the table). By the way, working via the abacus defined all ancient number systems. The Indians were the first to move fully past it by writing on huge leaves and needing a real zero to perform addition, etc., without an abacus. Technology drove them all. The Arabs agreed with the use of a real zero and adopted the system in toto. Europe did as well, as the need for something better suited to science and engineering than an accounting tool like an abacus was beginning to be felt. Additionally, for writing out contracts and other business documents like money transfers (like modern checks, more or less), something better than the cumbersome number strings of the Roman system was needed. This actually drove the change at the start, though it was science and engineering in which the Indian system truly shined.

Answer 2

Many cultures independently came up with a system of numbers and numerals (the symbols used to represent quantities). So there really was no single inventor of "the number system".

Currently though we use "Arabic numerals". This ten-digit system (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) has its roots in Arabic cultures, as the name implies. These shapes changed a bit over time, but if you look at older version you can see how they evolved. "0" is simply an empty space. "1" is just one slash. "2" can be drawn with two strokes. "3" originally looked like three horizontal bars. The others are not so intuitive but again they evolved from older-looking symbols that followed a similar pattern.

It is a nice system where we only have to use ten symbols to represent any quantity. And the inclusion of 0 as a place holder makes things a lot eaiser. Can you imagine trying to do long division with Roman numerals?

Answer 3

Indians. Atleast if you're talking about the place value system, where a digit placed to the left has a value 10 times more (like, in 27, the '2' represents '20' because it's in the tens' place), this system was invented by Indian mathematicians.

Answer 4

the need for counting and numbering is an ancient one. But if you are talking about the numbers we use today and call English numbers are in fact Arabic numbers modified in the 12 century from an indian numbering system. Europeans used the roman numbering system before that and it had no notation for zero.