The Mayan number system

First of all the Mayan number system is based a 20 system ( We use a base 10 system, computers use a base 2 (1 and 0) system. It uses 2 differnt icons to count a stick that equals 1 and a circle that equals 5. so:

|||| = 4
|||O = 8

Also the Aztecs came way after the mayans so you have that backwards. FYI the mayans are known as great thinkers while the Aztecs were pretty backwards.

Hi BradMorgan, welcome to A2k.

Yes, Mayan number system is vigesimal.
But you've got your dots and sticks wrong, I'm afraid.

Mayans worked with the zero. The only ancient people -to my knowledge- to do it.

The zero was a shell.
The one (hun'pel)was a dot.
The five (ho'pel) was a horizontal bar.

Dots were placed on top of bars.
4 dots over 2 horizontal bars: 14.

They had two calendars. One was 260 days (good for agriculture, ceremonies and fortune telling); the other was 365 days, divided in 18 months of 20 days plus 5 "lost" days.

The combination of both calendars was called the calendaric wheel. A day repeats itself after 18,890 days.

Day one of the calendaric wheel was, in terms of the Gregorian calendar, August 13, 3144 B.C.
---

The Aztecs, of course, came much later.
"Pretty backwards" seems a harsh phrase to me, but compared to the Mayans in their splendor, it may be correct.

The Mayan system was a semi-vegesimal, the first group was 20, but the second was based on the produce of 18 and 20 (20*18). Following groups were based upon this 18 factor and powers of 20.

The 18 seems to have come from the calendar of 360 days (e,g, 360=18*20).

As previously indicated the Mayan used dots and dashes to express numbers from 1 to 19, such that

• represented units (believed to be fingers)
bars under the dots represented fives (believed to be hands)

• = 1
••• =3
••• = 8
••• = 13
----

A third bar under the dots was 15+3=18

A place holder (0) was also included and looked something like ())---only horizontal

The number expressions tended to be vertical

So the Mayan number

•••
•••
())
•••
----

would be

8(18*202)+3(18*20)+0*20+13 =
8(7200)+3(360)+0(20+13 =
57600+1080+0+13=
58693

Rap c∫/