Non-Power Positional Number Representation Systems, Bijective Numeration, and the Mesoamerican Discovery of Zero
Non-Power Positional Number Representation Systems, Bijective Numeration, and the Mesoamerican Discovery of Zero Berenice Rojo-Garibaldia, Costanza Rangonib, Diego L. Gonz´alezb;c, and Julyan H. E. Cartwrightd;e a Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnolog´ıa, Universidad Nacional Aut´onomade M´exico, Av. Universidad 3000, Col. Copilco, Del. Coyoac´an,Cd.Mx. 04510, M´exico b Istituto per la Microelettronica e i Microsistemi, Area della Ricerca CNR di Bologna, 40129 Bologna, Italy c Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche \Paolo Fortunati", Universit`adi Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy d Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC{Universidad de Granada, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain e Instituto Carlos I de F´ısicaTe´oricay Computacional, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain Keywords: Zero | Maya | Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica | Number rep- resentation systems | Bijective numeration Abstract Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica was a fertile crescent for the development of number systems. A form of vigesimal system seems to have been present from the first Olmec civilization onwards, to which succeeding peoples made contributions. We discuss the Maya use of the representational redundancy present in their Long Count calendar, a non-power positional number representation system with multipliers 1, 20, 18× 20, :::, 18× arXiv:2005.10207v2 [math.HO] 23 Mar 2021 20n. We demonstrate that the Mesoamericans did not need to invent positional notation and discover zero at the same time because they were not afraid of using a number system in which the same number can be written in different ways. A Long Count number system with digits from 0 to 20 is seen later to pass to one using digits 0 to 19, which leads us to propose that even earlier there may have been an initial zeroless bijective numeration system whose digits ran from 1 to 20.
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