05 Inca Mathematics

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Inca Mathematics :Inca Mathematics Adam Benson Caleb Morrell Dominic Nardone Cory Sargeant Joshua Surdykowski Physics 001 Fall 2004

Slide 2:Typically, a civilization must develop a form of writing before they can come up with one for counting or math. This was not true for the Incas. Their enormous empire stretched from what is the present-day northern border of Ecuador to west-central Argentina, which meant that they spoke about 20 different languages because they were from such diverse ethnic groups. Because there were so many different languages spoken among the same tribe, they had to come up with a language they would all understand, which turned out to be mathematics. Do the Inca

Slide 3:The Incas were very advanced for their time. In addition to roads, they also had agriculture, textile design, and administration. This made it all the more incredible that they never developed a writing system. However, none of this would have been possible without a system to count. Their system of writing did not require any counting. All they needed were strings and knots, which they used to make quipus. Quipus were not calculators. They were for recording, not adding or subtracting. Developing Quipus

Slide 4:The way a quipu was used was by putting knots in different positions on a string. These different positions represented a base 10 counting system. For the units digit, knots were placed near the end of the string. A space was left, then there would be knots for the tens. Another space was left for the hundreds, and so on. For example, the number 395 would have 5 knots near the end of the string, then a space, then 9 knots and another space, and finally 3 knots for the hundreds. The quipu could also represent a zero by putting no knots in that position. This meant that the spaces left between had to be very distinct so a zero was discernable. About Quipus Incan Quipu

Slide 5:Just having hundreds of strings with numbers on them would be confusing, so different colors of strings would be used depending on what the number represented. For example, stalks of corn may have been shown by a yellow string, and apples might have been shown by a red string. With this system, any time you saw a certain color string, you would immediately know what it was recording. More about Quipus

Slide 6:The Incas also had a form of statisticians they called quipucamayocs. These quipucamayocs were the ones who interpreted the quipus and kept records which they would send to the capital, Cuzco. Statisticians

Slide 7:Nobody knows for sure whether or not the Incas applied these devices to solving mathematical problems. It may have just been for record keeping. Either way, it was the most efficient form of counting at the time and would eventually lead to other mathematical discoveries. Without a system to count, math would be impossible. Conclusion DONE