1-4-2.
Carving numbers on wood or stone made them more abstract, instead of using
objects to represent numbers they used symbols; so the easiest symbol to be
carved is a straight line such as a, b, c, or d. These numerals were the first symbols invented and they are called
tally marks. They notched the quantities as they
counted objects; however for large quantities they needed to recount the
notches, which was not easy. Imagine that you’re asked to count 1000 banknotes.
You’d count them one by one, but what would you do if you doubted the current
number let’s say if it’s 500 or 501. Then you should start over counting which
is tedious and tardy. Even if you used tally marks, you’d need to count them.
The
easy solution for this problem is bundling the banknotes, normally we
count up to ten, and then we fold the tenth banknote around the bundle. That’s
exactly what they did with the fifth notch, they carved it across the four notches (d) to create e.
Why
5? Because we have 5 fingers attached to a hand.
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