Figuratively, A Load Of Symbolics

Rich of March House

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Tuesday, June 20. 2006

Figuratively, A Load Of Symbolics

Years and years and years ago when I was small I worked out why digits happen to be the shape they are.  My theory was:

  • 0 - Well, that's zero which is nothing so the number zero is just a ring enclosing nothing.
  • 1 - Obvious.  One line.
  • 2 - It's sort of got two corners.  Especially if you draw it to look more like a Z.
  • 3 - Three points on a three.
  • 4 - There are four arms to the cross of a four.
  • 5 - Erm... this is where we start running into difficulty.  I suppose there are five lines to a five if you are drawing it on a seven-segment LED
  • 6 - Ooh this isn't working at all now.
  • 7 - Drat.
  • 8 - Aha!  Hang on, though - this sort of works again on a digital display.  Two square boxes of four corners each!
  • 9 - Oh no, actually it's a load of rubbish after all.

So, there you go.  Make of that what you will.

Posted by Rich in Maths at 15:46 | Comments (8)
Comments
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7 works if you do it continental-like with a crosspiece, and then put it on a little base. Then there are 7 angles.
#1 JG (Homepage) on 2006-06-20 17:00 (Reply)
9 looks like an elephant's head, with the trunk hanging down, and elephants have nine protrusions (four legs, a trunk, two tusks, a tail and a willy).
#2 SimonG (Homepage) on 2006-06-20 17:37 (Reply)
Lady elephants don't have willies, Simon
#2.1 JG (Homepage) on 2006-06-20 18:41 (Reply)
I did this too.

5 - the top's a four-pointed square and then there's another point at the end of the tail

6 - draw the 6 from a dice then write a 6 by joining the dots... a stretch, but worked for me!

7 - oo look! a pigeon!

8 - two boxes of 4 points, yep

9 - um... it's a fair cop...
#3 sweavo on 2006-06-20 17:47 (Reply)
When I added the reply: "Why?", I got a Spam Prevention Message. Why?
#4 Lois (Homepage) on 2006-06-20 17:53 (Reply)
No idea, Lois. It might be something to do with not liking single word comments or something.
#4.1 Rich (Homepage) on 2006-06-20 18:19 (Reply)
Don't forget, when we copied the numerals off the arabs we made a few mistakes. It might work better to use the real ones

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals
#5 jeremy Pereira on 2006-06-20 17:57 (Reply)
I remember hearing that before the 0 symbol was invented, people would simply make a hole in the papyrus or whatever they were using - or a round mark in clay to signify a hole - to mean 'nothing'. Later on that developed into a drawing of the hole, ie a circle.
#6 JG on 2006-06-21 08:37 (Reply)
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