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May 29, 2006
Place Value Systems
I find it interesting the Maya used a vigesimal (base twenty) system of numeration.
The first five in the vigesimal system are 1, 20, 400, 8000, 160000.
In a decimal (base ten) system of numeration.
The first five are 1, 10 100, 1000, 10000.
I also find it interesting that the Maya understood the value of Zero. Most of the world's civilizations had no concept of zero at that time.
Think about that. By understanding the concept of zero, you cannot confuse one place with another.
Fact: The Mayans were a thousand years more advanced than the rest of the world when it came to mathematics.
Many believe the reason for base 20 arose from the ancient Maya who counted on both their fingers and their toes.
Who knows.
The Mayan concern for understanding the cycles of celestial bodies, particularly the Sun, the Moon and Venus, led them to accumulate a large set of highly accurate observations. An important aspect of their cosmology was the search for major cycles, in which the position of several objects repeated.
-L F Rodriguez
What happened to 'em? Any thoughts?
Sometimes I think too much.
Posted by Yabu at May 29, 2006 11:05 PM | The Past
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I suspect all that advanced math was required for the number of freakin' steps on their temples...
Posted by: Christina at May 30, 2006 07:24 AM
My daughter did some kind of report on this earlier this year....I'd have to ask her but I think she told me they had 2 calendars? One had 13 mths or something like that....
Very interesting though...
Posted by: Sandy at May 30, 2006 11:16 AM
What a shame we don't come equipped with eight fingers and eight toes. It sure would've made hexadecimal math a lot easer.
Posted by: Bob at May 30, 2006 05:24 PM
It's also a little-known fact that my family in North Georgia counted in base twelve, since they only counted on their toes.
At any rate, I'm pretty sure that global warming killed the Mayas. Or spacemen. Spacemen killed the Mayas, I mean. Spacemen are immune to global warming, for obvious reasons.
Posted by: Rube at May 31, 2006 12:02 PM
The Mayan calander did split the solar year into 13 lunar months. The calander also counts backwards to the winter soltice 2012. This was believed by the Mayans to be the end / begining of an entire cycle of the universe.
Terrence McKenna's Novelty Theory & Time Wave Zero also counted back to the same date.
Real pity that all of their knowledge is lost :o(
Even remember reading of how the Mayans built batteries & used some form of electricity!
Posted by: okay-dokey at June 1, 2006 08:22 PM
