There is also a saying that numbers originated in ancient India and were not invented by Arabs. Numbers were later mastered by Arabs for business, improved and spread to the west. Westerners call these numbers Arabic numerals because they first came into contact with Arabs and used these data, mistakenly thinking that they invented them, which has caused this historical misunderstanding.
Later, with the wide spread in the world, everyone agreed with the term "Arabic numerals", which made people in many parts of the world mistakenly think that numerals were invented by Arabs. In fact, Arabs first began to use numbers widely. After it spread to Europe, Europeans liked this convenient and applicable notation very much. Although people later learned the truth, they never corrected it because they were used to it.
Numbers were gradually created by ancient Indians in production and practice. In ancient India, urban construction needed design and planning, and sacrifices needed to calculate the movements of the sun, the moon and the stars, so mathematical calculation came into being. Around 3000 BC, the number of residents in the Indus Valley was relatively advanced, and the decimal calculation method was adopted.
By the third century BC, a complete set of numbers appeared in India, but the writing in different regions was not completely consistent. Brahmanism was the most representative: this set of numbers was widely used at that time. Its characteristic is that every number from "1" to "9" has a special word. Modern numbers are derived from this set of numbers.
Extended data:
Number type:
(1) Suzhou code: 〡, 〢, 〣, 〤, 〥, 〦, 〧, 〨, ぃ, ten.
(2) Arabic numerals: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.
(3) Roman numerals: Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ ⅶ ⅷ ⅸ.
(4) English numbers: A B C D E F (in hexadecimal).
The earliest tools used by human beings to count are fingers and toes, but they can only represent numbers within 20. When the number was large, primitive people mostly counted pebbles and beans. Gradually, people were not satisfied with counting by grains, so they invented the method of knotting to describe counting, and described counting on hides, bones, trees and stones.
In ancient China, counting was done with sticks made of wood, bamboo or bones, which was called counting chip. These counting methods and symbols gradually became the earliest digital symbols (numbers). Today, all countries in the world use Arabic numerals as standard numbers.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Numbers