idea
How numbers travelled
Our digits came from India, passed through the Arab world and reached Europe in the Middle Ages, helped by books such as Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci of 1202. With them came the place-value system and zero, which made written arithmetic far easier than with Roman numerals.
Connects to
- History
- Zero
- Calendars
- Translation and the House of Wisdom
- Routes and exchange
- What does zero count?
- What did people write down first?
- Who invented zero?
- Do ideas arise twice?