Why does 3 come before 4?
Q: Why was 6 afraid of 7?
A: Because 7 8 9!
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You might have heard this goofy play on both words and numbers before.
But did you ever think about where our modern number system came from?
Number systems have been around for thousands and thousands of years – about as long as there were humans around who needed to count things!
The most common number system, the same one we use today, was invented in ancient India, later improved by Arabic people, and adopted in Europe during the high middle ages.
It is now called “base ten.”
Ten digits or numerals (0-9) are used to represent numbers for just about everything:
amounts, ages, weights, and even time.
These ten digits can be combined in infinite ways to represent infinite numbers.
See for yourself: fun with numbers
While the real purpose of numbers is to measure or count, it’s also possible to have a little fun with them!
Sudoku is a number-based puzzle that originated in Japan.
A typical Sudoku puzzle is a 9-by-9 grid, and the puzzle is to
correctly place the numerals 1-9 into each box, column, and row.
The hard part is that you must use all 9 numerals without repeating them in a section.
The grid will come with some numbers already filled in, so you use those to figure out the rest of the puzzle.
Try this one, and find more at www.sudokuweb.org. Sudoku has been shown to help improve logic and math skills!
