For the Mayans, there were twenty days in a month and eighteen months in a year, 360 (the five days were considered bad luck).Īn advantage of using this number system is that large numbers are easier to express, and simple arithmetic is easily accomplished. Now, to multiply 23 × 57, we write 57 as the sum 50 + 7 and use the distributive law to obtain 23 × 57 23 × (50 + 7) 23 × 50 + 23 × 7 Using the table of muliptles at the right, we see that 23 × 50 (19,10) 60 and 23 × 7 (2,41) 60. The same principal was used with the calendar, however, the upmost dot represented a multiple of eighteen. Remember, Babylonains used base-60, so the table contains (1,9) 60 for 3 × 23 instead of 69. twenty-three would be expressed with a dot over three dots). In Mayan numerals, numbers over nineteen were expressed with a dot representing a multiple of twenty (ie. Mayan mathematics are used today in our calendar. – Sets of five (lines) are placed horizontally at the bottom and the ones (dots) are placed above it Example: A number on two rows with 1 dot then (under) 2 dots: 1×20+2×1 22 1 × 20 + 2. Example: a single row with 2 dots and 3 bars: 2×1+3×5 17 2 × 1 + 3 × 5 17. – Three different number symbols – zero is a shell, one is a dot and five is a line Converting Mayan numerals to English/Arabic numerals is made by counting dots and bars symbols on each rows and treat it as base 20 writing, before converting it to base 10. – Base-20, as the Mayans counted using their fingers AND their toes Once again, this number system is used to count. One big advantage of a base-60 number system is that it is a highly composite number. Modern usage of the Babylonian number system can be found in time: sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle. – Number of tens written on the left, number of units on the right Since their numeral system was a sexagesimal system (base-60), a Babylonian three-digit number D2D1D0 would represent the number D2 602 + D1 601 + D0 600.

Type the number of Babylonian numerals you want to convert in the text box, to see the results in the table.

– The value of the digit is determined using the digit itself and the positioning of it Babylonian numerals (Languages), numerals. The distinctive features of Babylonian numerals include:

A base-60 number system proved much easier for calculations, as, previously, each number up to ten had a different symbol. As it is with most other number systems, the main purpose of the Babylonian numerals was to count.

602 in babylonian numerals