General Question

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Does Asia have its own mathematics?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24986points) November 27th, 2016

When I watch Asian business news I see Hindu-Arabic math in the displays.

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12 Answers

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

No. Math is the same everywhere.

zenvelo's avatar

Mathematics is not linguistic; math is the same in any language.

Mimishu1995's avatar

Their own ways of teaching mathematics, t be exact.

imrainmaker's avatar

You might be talking about numbers being displayed which is possible to have different notation but basic principles are the same everywhere.

SavoirFaire's avatar

Are you asking about mathematics, or about numerals? There are such things as Chinese numerals, just like there are Roman numerals. But math is math. It’s the same all over, no matter what symbols you use to represent it. It just so happens that Arabic numerals and the decimal system are the most convenient forms of representation we’ve come up with, so most cultures use them regardless of whether they have their own traditional form of mathematical representation.

flutherother's avatar

Maths is maths and if there is intelligent life on Rigel III their maths cannot be different from ours only more or less advanced.

LostInParadise's avatar

Maybe the displays are referring to the numerals. Something that many people do not know is that the decimal system originated with the Hindus living in what is now north India and Pakistan. I believe they were the first to use zero as a place holder. Europeans got the decimal system from the Arabs, who got it from the Hindus. The numerals are sometimes called Arabic numerals or, more accurately, Hindu-Arabic numerals.

LostInParadise's avatar

There is a philosophic question, which I am sure @SavoirFaire is familiar with, as to whether mathematics is discovered or invented. I can’t imagine that there is a way of ever resolving the dispute. Since all of mathematical theorems can be reduced to set theory and logic, our mathematics could be shared with any universe that uses these concepts. A universe where sets or logic is not applicable is beyond our understanding.

I believe that most mathematicians are Platonists regarding mathematics, believing that mathematical ideas exist in the universe without the need for anyone to think of them. I am drawn to this point of view, though I am not going to try to defend it. It is pleasant to believe that in working with math, we can make contact with something that is eternal. It is as close as I get to believing in God.

RocketGuy's avatar

You might be seeing numbers written in their native language. You would need a simple table to see what symbols correspond to our familiar 0 – 9.

Darth_Algar's avatar

Hindu-Arabic math?

Do you mean numbers? Because if so, Hindu-Arabic numbers would be 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

RocketGuy's avatar

and Thai numbers would look like these here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_numerals

Andythepiano's avatar

No. They sometimes use different ways of writing the numbers, and some different methods for arithmetic, but no, the underlying maths is exactly the same.

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