Mayan Number System

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Jeremy
Math Report Mayan Math

In order to examine the Mayan number system you must first know that our number system is a 10 base number system. This means that things are counted by 10; we start 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. From there it goes 11, which is "1" repeated, so it starts over again there until 19, then at 20 everything goes with a two, and so on and so forth. We have the same 10 numbers repeating the whole time. The Maya number system was a base twenty system. Here are the Mayan numerals.

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The reason for a base 20 system almost certainly arose from ancient Mayans who counted on both their fingers and their toes. Although it was a base 20 system, it is also called a vigesimal system. Five plays a major role with the line symbol, again clearly relating to five fingers and toes. Although the system is base 20 it only has three number symbols (perhaps the unit symbol arising from a pebble and the line symbol from a stick used in counting). Often people say how impossible it would be to have a number system to a large base because it would involve remembering so many special symbols. This shows how people are conditioned by the system they use and can only see variants of the number system in close analogy with theirs. Surprisingly advanced features of the Mayan number system are the zero, represented by a shell for reasons we cannot explain, and the positional nature of the system.
However, there is a slight inconsistency between the Mayan numerical system and a true base 20 system. In a true base 20 system the first number would denote the number of units up to 19, the next would denote the number of 20's up to 19, the next the number of 400's up to 19, etc. Although the Maya number system starts this way with the units up to 19 and the 20's up to 19, it changes in the third place and this denotes the number of 360's up to 19 instead of the number of 400's. After...