The History of Zero: Indian and Mayan Cultures

​Many of the cultures that we have today have evolved from past events. Such as language it was something that became known throughout the years. Some of the languages that came from that were English, Spanish, German, and Latin to name a few. These languages were derived more past civilizations. One important civilization that is known for having great success is the Mayan civilization. The Mayan civilization is known for many things like they fully developed written language, art, architecture, math and some other factors. Historians have said that they don’t know an exact date of when this civilization rose up but they do mention that it flourished for about 2000 years. Although staring in 250 AD it is said that it was the start of their high point and it continued until the arrival of the Spanish in 1524. The Maya area covers southern Mexico and northwestern Central America. According to Sharer the area is divided into three regions: the Pacific coastal plain to the south, the highlands in the center, and the lowlands to the north. Even though these three regions were under the same civilization they all practiced different religious rituals. Religion plays a big role in every civilization. Some civilizations tend to praise more than one god and they always mention that what they have is thanks to their god. When they see things going wrong they often say that their god is punishing them because they did something that the god/s did not like. This tends to be the same

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

The Sumerians created and used many mathematical concepts, and a few of them are still in use today, six

Among the many scholars working in the House of Wisdom, there was Al-Khawarizmi, known as the father of algebra. Born around 800 in Baghdad, al-Khwarizmi worked in the House of Wisdom as a scholar. Being involved in the center’s translation of ancient scientific knowledge helped him develop a unique knowledge of the accumulated wisdom of the world. His importance lies in his discoveries of mathematical knowledge which was later transferred to Arab and European scholars. His masterpiece, a book of clear explanations of what would become algebra, was his entire life’s work compiled into one collection of information. The word algebra comes from the Arabic word, al-jabr, which means “completion”. In his work, al-Khwarizmi explains the principles of solving linear and quadratic equations, the concept that an equation can be created to find the value of an unknown variable. Another crucial work of al-Khwarizmi’s was The Book on the Art of Reckoning of the Hindus, which introduced the numbering system used in the Islamic culture to the west. This is the numerical system that is still used today and offered many advantages over the existing Roman numerals. An

After looking over the symbols they created and how they were simple and understanding, I realized that the Mayans were way ahead of their time. All they used were dots and lines and as a zero, it was just a rugby ball looking thing. Instead of creating 400 different symbols to create just the number 400, they used four symbols and just changed the combination of them differently. Forty used three symbols, one rugby ball symbol and two single dots. Four hundred used three symbols too, two rugby ball looking symbols and just one single dot. By far more the one of the better in complex number systems. Compared to the Aztecs, who had feathers for 400 and finger symbols for 1, the Mayan’s number system was easy, with just dots and lines.

The Aztec and Maya were both American Indian people. The Aztec were ruled by a mighty empire in Mexico during the 1400's and early 1500's. The Maya however, developed a magnificent civilization in Central America and Southern Mexico. Both civilizations contributed a great deal to the modern world and invented items that are still used today.

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years, 1000 BC-AD 1542. Many aspects of this culture continue yet today. The Ancient Maya in their time had actually refined writing.

Although the west did have its own cultivation of knowledge, the majority of westernized thinking originated in India and other Southern Asian countries. The people of India invented Hindi numerals. Arabs gave these numerals the title, ‘Hindi numbers’. These numerals included the concept of zero and allowed mathematicians to make fast, accurate calculations. Once Arabs had begun using the Indians numerals and concept of zero, Europeans were then introduced to these concepts and called them ‘Arab numerals’. Chinese used Indian mathematical concepts but advanced the ideas which allowed them to expand in that field of knowledge. The methods that the Chinese used based off of the ideas of Indians, shows how methods were spread. Since the

The Mayan number system is their most remarkable achievement. In document C it says”They were one of the first cultures in the world to develop the idea of zero.” Document C also says”The Maya used a positional system based on 20 rather than 10.” The first piece of evidence shows that The Mayan number system is their most remarkable achievement. The second

In their arithmetic, a dot equals 1, a bar equals 5, and so on. The Codex Vergara was a document in which the Aztecs recorded their measurements of the surface of a field. This document helped the experts to analyze how they used symbols and “land rods” to measure the distance of an irregular shape of land. If a measurement did not match a precise number of land rods then they would use symbols like arrows, hearts, and bones to indicate how much less the distance was than one rod. These symbols were like the unit of measure inches. Inches were not simply part of a foot but a unit itself. Each symbol was used as an individual

First of all I think that the Mayans number system was their most remarkable achievement because they were able to use symbols instead of numbers like we use today. This is remarkable because with this they had an 20 base number system instead of our 10 base system. This is incredible because its symbols and that means that they had to put more thought and work into developing this system with deciding on what the symbols would be as each number because of how many gods things that mean alot to them. As it states in the text, in document C, “ The Maya used a positional system paste on the number 20, rather than the number 10, and they were one of the first cultures in the world to develop the idea

Although writing in the New World did not originate among the Maya, they gave writing its greatest refinements.(Miller)

The Mayan Civilization at its height was one of the greatest civilization to ever reign on the planet. Their advances in astronomy and mathematics well in advance has helped present civilizations to prosper. But one of the great questions is what happened to the Mayans? Why did they collapse? What caused them to collapse? It is a question that had gone unanswered for decades until some of the worlds great historians and scientist finally concluded to three reasons why the Mayan Civilization collapsed. The Mayans Collapse was fast and occurred due to Deforestation and Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Internal and Exterior Rivalry.

The reason to why their number system is truly their most remarkable achievement is because it would already be hard to make a number and then have to give it a name of what you or anyone would call it. Not only did they make their own number system, but they also understood. It can be very difficult to make your own language or number system and understand it. It is also very remarkable because at their time not a lot of cultures had the knowledge of the zero, they did.

The Egyptians used sums of unit fractions (a), supplemented by the fraction B, to express all other fractions. For example, the fraction E was the sum of the fractions 3 and *. Using this system, the Egyptians were able to solve all problems of arithmetic that involved fractions, as well as some elementary problems in algebra. In geometry, the Egyptians calculated the correct areas of triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids and the volumes of figures such as bricks, cylinders, and pyramids. To find the area of a circle, the Egyptians used the square on U of the diameter of the circle, a value of about 3.16-close to the value of the ratio known as pi, which is about 3.14. The Babylonian system of numeration was quite different from the Egyptian system. In the Babylonian system-which, when using clay tablets, consisted of various wedge-shaped marks-a single wedge indicated 1 and an arrowlike wedge stood for 10 (see table). Numbers up through 59 were formed from these symbols through an additive process, as in Egyptian mathematics. The number 60, however, was represented by the same symbol as 1, and from this point on a positional symbol was used. That is, the value of one of the first 59 numerals depended henceforth on its position in the total numeral. For example, a numeral consisting of a symbol for 2 followed by one for 27 and ending in one for 10 stood for 2 × 602 + 27 × 60 + 10.