In fact, Arabic numerals were not invented by Arabs, but by ancient Indians.
Ancient Indians carved some horizontal lines on stone tablets to indicate numbers, one horizontal line indicated 1 and the other horizontal line indicated 2 ... Later, they used palm leaves or birch bark as writing materials and connected some strokes, for example, two horizontal lines of 2 were written as z, three horizontal lines of 3 were written as z, and so on.
In the 8th century AD, an Indian mathematician named Kank came to Baghdad, the capital of Arabia, with digital books and astronomical charts. At this time, China's papermaking had just been introduced into Arabia. As a result, his book was quickly translated into Arabic and spread in the Arabian Peninsula, and Arabic numerals also spread to all parts of Arabia.
With the commercial exchanges between the East and the West, these figures were introduced to Europe by Arab businessmen in the12nd century. Europeans love this convenient and applicable notation, and they think it is Arabic numerals, which has caused this historical misunderstanding. Although people later knew the truth of the matter, they never corrected it because they were used to it.
After Arabic numerals spread to European countries, their appearance gradually changed due to reproduction. After more than 65,438+0,000 years of continuous improvement, it was not until 65,438+0,480 that the writing of these numbers was similar to the current writing. 1522, Arabic numerals appeared in the book "The Englishman and Stowe", which was basically consistent with the current writing.
Because Arabic numerals and their decimal notation have many advantages, they are gradually spread all over the world and used by all countries in the world.