Home > Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals (also called Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals) are by far the most common form of symbolism used to represent numbers. The Arabic numeral system is a positional base 10 numeral system with 10 distinct glyphs representing the 10 numerical digits. The leftmost digit of a number has the greatest value. In a more developed form, the Arabic numeral system also uses a decimal marker (at first a mark over the ones digit but now more usually a decimal point or a decimal comma which separates the ones place from the tenths place), and also a symbol for “these digits repeat ad infinitum” (recur). In modern usage, this latter symbol is usually a vinculum (a horizontal line placed over the repeating digits); the need for it can be removed by representing fractions as simple ratios with a division sign, but this obviates many of Arabic numbers’ more obvious advantages, such as the ability to immediately determine which of two numbers is greater. Historically, however, there has been much variation. In this more developed form, the Arabic numeral system can symbolize any rational number using only 13 glyphs (the ten digits, decimal marker, vinculum or division sign, and an optional prepended dash to indicate a negative number).

The Arabic numeral system has used many different sets of glyphs. These glyph sets can be divided into two main families—namely the West Arabic numerals, and the East Arabic numerals. East Arabic numerals—which were developed primarily in what is now Iraq—are shown in the table below as Arabic-Indic. East Arabic-Indic is a variety of East Arabic numerals. West Arabic numerals—which were developed in al-Andalus and the Maghreb—are shown in the table, labelled European. (There are two ways of rendering the European style numerals, known as modern and medieval numerals).

If your browser does not have all required fonts, this table might be rendered incorrectly. In this case, look at this graphic:

In JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, Arabic numerals and the Roman alphabetAn alphabet is a complete standardized set of letters—basic written symbols—each of which roughly represents or represented historically a phoneme of a spoken language. This as distinguished from other writing systems such as ideograms, in which symbols r are both used under the name of romajiRomaji ( "Roman characters"), sometimes misspelled as Romanji is a Japanese term for the Latin alphabet. Romaji are often used in Japanese text for abbreviations, metric measurements, and to clarify the spelling of foreign names. In English usage, romaji. So, if a number is written in Arabic numerals, they would say “it is written in romaji” (as opposed to Japanese numeralsBasic numbering in Japanese The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language. Some numbers have multiple names. In modern Japanese, yaoyorozu means something more like "myriad", and is mainly found in set phrases). This translates as ‘Roman characters’, and may sound confusing for those who know about Roman numeralsThe system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome. It is based on certain letters which are given values: I or i for one, V or v for five, X or x for ten, L or l for fifty, C or c for one hundred (the initial of centum , D or d.

The Arabic numeral system is considered one of the most significant developments in mathematicsMathematics is commonly defined as the study of patterns of structure, change, and space; more informally, one might say it is the study of "figures and numbers". In the formalist view, it is the investigation of axiomatically defined abstract structures. Most historians agree that it was first conceived of in IndiaThe Republic of India is a large multicultural country in South Asia, with a population of over one billion. The Indian economy is the fourth largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, and is the world's second-fastest growing economy. (particularly as Arabs themselves call the numerals they use “Indian numerals”, أرقام هندية, arqam hindiyyah), and was then transmitted to the Islamic world and thence, via North Africa and Spain, to Europe.

The first inscriptions using 0 in India have been traced to approximately 400 AD. Aryabhata's numerical code also represents a full knowledge of the zero symbol. By the time of Bhaskara I (i.e., the seventh century AD) a base 10 numeral system with 9 glyphs was widely used in India, and the concept of zero (represented by a dot) was known (see the Vāsavadattā of Subandhu , or the definition by Brahmagupta). It is possible, however, that the invention of the zero sign took place sometime in the first century when the Buddhist philosophy of shunyata (zero-ness) gained ascendancy.

This numeral system had reached the Middle East by 670. Muslim mathematicians working in what is now Iraq, such as Al-Khwarizmi, were already familiar with the Babylonian numeral system, which used the zero digit between nonzero digits (although not after nonzero digits), so the more general system would not have been a difficult step. In the tenth century AD, Arab mathematicians extended the decimal numeral system to include fractions, as recorded in a treatise by Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in 952-3.