Something intersting about digits
The numbers we all use (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are known as ” arabic ” numbers to distinguish them from the ” Roman Numerals ” (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc). Actually the arabs popularized these numbers but they were originally used by the early phoenician traders to count and keep track of their trading accounts.
Have you ever thought why…….. 1 means “one”, and 2 means “two”? The roman numerals are easy to understand but what was the logic behind the phoenician numbers?
It’s all about angles !
It’s the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. I have marked the angles with “o”s.
1 has one angle.
2 has two angles.
3 has three angles.
etc…and “O” has no angles.
