Previous Topic	Exploring whole numbers ( Number Operations & Number Theory ) Term    : 1  Module : 1 - Capturing Data  Unit 1      : Numbers Made Easy  (  History Of Numbers )       The Ancient Egyptians
Hieroglyphics	The Ancient Egyptians used picture symbols as numerals, to represent their numbers. Picture symbols are known as hieroglyphics. As shown below, a single stroke represented one, with as many as nine strokes used for numbers from one to nine. Other pictures were used to represented the numbers 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000. These pictures appeared in groups of three's and order or placement did not matter. This is a major difference between our own decimal numbering system since placement or position in decimal is very important. For example with decimal, a one in the first position is simply one unit, while a one in the third column is really one hundred. Another major difference is the fact that the Ancient Egyptians had no zero or picture to represent zero. With only a blank space to represent zero, try and see how difficult it would be to add numbers.  Zero was invented a long time afterwards.
Pictures and their Representation
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