What's with numbers?

[Wing Nut]

Why is it that languages can use different characters for letters (as in English and Japanese) but worldwide, the same characters are used for numbers?  Seems odd...

[michaelb15]

because # = $ and $ is very important worldwide?

And words don't matter when you got $

[Iroquois]

Have you been taking your medication?

Anyway, it probably has something to do with science and mathamatics more than anything else. Because science is conducted on a global scale today, SI units, Periodic IDs, and numbers are globally kept the same for simplicity and to avoid confusions in translation. Why they would use Latin characters is anybody's guess. Probably has something to do with the scienctific revolution ocuring in Europe.

[Wing Nut]

I could understand numbers in the Northern and Southern Americas and Europe being the same.  They are all based on the same letters.  But the Oriental, Middle East, and Russian letters a almost unrecognizable to the lay person.  Yet they all use the same numbering system.  Am I nuts for thinking this is odd?

[Polynomial]

i think it is because the world wants to be a global community (watch this space) and to achieve this the world will eventually revert to one currency, number system, language etc. . . . .

[Loafing Smurf]

Dont we use Arabic numerals, except we shape them differently so it goes with our characters? But, I wonder how did the Arabic numerals spread? Suez Canal? There always seems to be something happening there. Then, wasn't Europeans travelling through the Suez to get to the Asias for the spice trade.

I'm probably wrong about this but did the Phoenicians start the alphabet? Latin seems to be the language (lingua = toung in latin) that first use the modern alpabet. Except "v" is pronounced "w" and "vice versa". Then capital leters are only used for names.

meh...thats just inaccurate fragments of what I know mixed wit guesses spilt on this post

[JBaymore]

[quote]Why is it that languages can use different characters for letters (as in English and Japanese) but worldwide, the same characters are used for numbers?

[Smoke2much]

But, I wonder how did the Arabic numerals spread? Suez Canal? There always seems to be something happening there. Then, wasn't Europeans travelling through the Suez to get to the Asias for the spice trade.

The Suez Canal was opened in 1869.  I doubt that it had much to do with the spread of Arabic numerals.

Will

[Felix/FFDS]

Dont we use Arabic numerals, except we shape them differently so it goes with our characters? But, I wonder how did the Arabic numerals spread? Suez Canal?

In the European "Dark Ages", after the fall of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, the centers of knowledge was centered in Northern Africa, and with Islamic scholars and academics. Islam spread throughout Northern Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, and would have spread northward into the rest of Europe, save for (name of battle forgotten) but led by Charlemagne.. ,  In either event, the Moors kept the knowledge up in the Iberian peninsula until they were finally defeated in 1492.

Basically, trade etc., with the Arabs brought about the educating influences - not the "Suez Canal"...

[Hagar]

We have free access to the greatest information resource ever known in history. It surprises me how few people seem to use it.

http://www.geocities.com/mathfair2002/school/arit/arithm1.htm

[Wing Nut]

If you ask my wife, she would tell you I spend too much time on it...  :)

[Hagar]

Depends on what you're using it for.

Don't think I'm getting at you. This & many other interesting topics often encourage me to search for the answers. I'm an experienced "surfer" with an insatiable curiosity. The WWW fascinates me & I can find explanations for most things in a short time.