User:Aua/Arabic Numerals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arabic numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals[1][2] or Indo-Arabic numerals[3] are the ten digits(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by ancient Indian mathematicians,[4] in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a single number. The Indian numerals are traditionally thought to have been adopted by the Muslim Persian and Arab mathematicians in India, and passed on to the Arabs further west.
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There is some evidence which suggests that the numerals in their current form developed from Arabic letters in the western regions of the Arab World.[5] The current form of the numerals developed in North Africa, distinct in form from the Indian and eastern Arabic numerals. It was in the North African city of Bejaia that the Italian scholarFibonacci first encountered the numerals; his work was crucial in making them known throughout Europe, and then further to the Europeans who spread it worldwide. The use of Arabic numerals spread around the world through European trade, books and colonialism. Today they are the most common symbolic representation of numbers in the world.
The reason the digits are more commonly known as "Arabic numerals" in Europe and the Americas is that they were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic-speakers of North Africa, who were then using the digits from Libya to Morocco. Arabs, on the other hand, call the system "Hindu numerals",[6][7] referring to their origin in India. This is not to be confused with what the Arabs call the "Hindi numerals", namely the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠ - ١ -٢ - ٣ - ٤ - ٥ - ٦ -٧ - ٨ - ٩) used in the Middle East, or any of the numerals currently used in Indian languages (e.g. Devanagari:०.१.२.३.४.५.६.७.८.९).[8]
In English, the term Arabic numerals can be ambiguous. It most commonly refers to the numeral system widely used in Europe and the Americas. Arabic numerals is the conventional name for the entire family of related systems of Arabic and Indian numerals. It may also be intended to mean the numerals used by Arabs, in which case it generally refers to the Eastern Arabic numerals.
The decimal Hindu-Arabic numeral system was invented in India around 500 CE.[8][9] The system was revolutionary by including azero and positional notation. It is considered an important milestone in the development of mathematics. One may distinguish between this positional system, which is identical throughout the family, and the precise glyphs used to write the numerals, which vary regionally. The glyphs most commonly used in conjunction with the Latin script sinceearly modern times are 0 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9.
Although the phrase "Arabic numeral" is frequently capitalized, it is sometimes written in lower case: for instance, in its entry in the Oxford English dictionary.[10] This helps distinguish it from "Arabic numerals" as the East Arabic numerals specific to the Arabs.