Math 7

Honors Core Content

Student Textbook
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 Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Unit 1: Ancient Number Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Egyptian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Babylonian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Roman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Greek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Mayan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chinese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Hindu-Arabic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Special Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Unit 2: Number Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Decimal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Binary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Quinary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Duodecimal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Hexadecimal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Other Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Unit 3: Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Familiar Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Basic Coded Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

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 One- and Two-Part Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

One-Time Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Idiot Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

WWII Navajo Code Talkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Social Security Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Universal Product Codes (UPC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

ZIP Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

License Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Bank Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Phone Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Unit 4: Patterns in Nature, Art & Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Prime Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

The Fibonacci Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The Golden Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Pascal’s Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Fractals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Tessellations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Discussion Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Works Cited/Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

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 Preface
This text is intended as an introduction to four topics: ancient number systems, number bases,
codes, and patterns in nature, art & mathematics. Although the study is in-depth in many
areas, it is by no means an exhaustive analysis. As you read the textbook and as you cover
each unit in class, you are encouraged to further research any idea that you find intriguing.
Take this as an opportunity to enrich your knowledge of mathematics and the impact it has had
on our lives; find out just how fascinating it can be.

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 Unit 1: Ancient Number Systems
Number systems didn’t always exist. From the beginning, people only distinguished between
one and many; in fact, those were the only quantities they could express. A caveman owed
either one spearhead, or many spearheads; he had eaten one saber-toothed squirrel or many
saber-toothed squirrels. Eventually, over time, languages developed and evolved so that they
could verbally express one, two or many, then one, two, three or many. But there still weren’t
terms for higher numbers.

In order to create new numbers, men began to string number-words together. The essence of
numbers is that new ones can be created through addition. The Bacairi and the Bororo of
Brazil speak languages even today that show this process. They count: one, two, two and
one, two and two, two and two and one, etc. (Seife 7).

Dating as far back as the Paleolithic period (10,000 to 50,000 years ago), men kept track of
something through “tally sticks”. These were usually bone, and have been discovered in
various places throughout the world.

In 1960, Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt discovered a baboon bone with markings: the
Ishango bone was found near the headwaters of the Nile River, which was home to a
population of upper Paleolithic people prior to a volcanic eruption in that area. On this bone
were made marks which suggest that these people had a simple understanding of doubling a
number, or dividing by two: one column of marks on the bone begins with three notches which
then double to six notches; four notches double to eight, and then ten notches decrease to
five. Additionally, the numbers in other columns are all odd (9, 11, 13, 17, 19, and 21). The
prime numbers between 10 and 20 are contained in one column, and the sum of the numbers
in each column is either 60 or 48, which are both multiples of 12. This bone dates back to
18,000 BC (Pickover 26).

In Czechoslovakia, 1937, archaeologist Karl Absolom uncovered a 30,000-year-old wolf bone

with a series of notches carved into it. This wolf bone had 55 notches in it, arranged into
groups of five; there was a second notch after the first 25 marks (Bunt, Jones, Bedient 2).

It looks like our caveman friend was counting by fives. Why fives? Why not four or six? The
groupings don’t change the outcome; no matter if you count by twos, threes, fours, or
seventeens, the total would still be the same. Five seems to have been the base of choice for
many cultures. In fact, the word “fiving” was used by the early Greeks to describe tallying.
The Bororo (the South American tribe mentioned above), developed a phrase for two and two
and one: the phrase is “this is my hand all together” (Seife 8).

Using body parts seems to have been the most common way to count: one hand, both hands,
hands and feet. In English, eleven and twelve seem to be derived from “one over ten” and
“two over ten,” while thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc., are contractions of “three and ten,” “four
and ten,” and so forth. Linguists have concluded that those people used a base-10 number
system; some early civilizations even had a 10-day week.

On the other hand, in France, there is evidence that those ancient inhabitants used a base-20,
or vigesimal number system (Seife 7-8).

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The need for counting seems to have developed as people found the need to keep track of
property, trading property (how many figs in exchange for a sheep, for example), the passage
of time, and especially for measuring in order to build.

Egyptian
The ancient Egyptians are quite possibly the first civilization to practice science. Alchemy was
the ancient name for Egypt, and it is the word from which we derived “chemistry”. Ancient
Egyptians were known for their skill in medicine and their application of mathematics. The
number system was a base ten, though there was no place value system, which also meant
that they hadn’t run into the problem of needing a zero. Written in hieroglyphs, this system of
numerals was used in Ancient Egypt until the early first millennium AD.

One of the reasons for their development of mathematics was for measuring and surveying.
The land surrounding the Nile was prime farmland. Each year the Nile flooded, depositing rich
soil in the process; however, any boundary markings were washed away, making it difficult to
determine ownership and thereby causing disputes amongst neighbors. Added to that,
cheating anyone out of their land was an offense that carried harsh consequences in the
afterlife. But perhaps most important to the ruler of the day, taxes were determined by land
ownership. Therefore, it was necessary to find a way to re-establish the correct boundaries
after the flood each year. “Rope stretchers” (usually a team of three) were able to accomplish
this task by using knotted ropes and dividing the land into rectangles and triangles—the birth of
Geometry (Hakim 18).

Symbols for Egyptian numerals are in powers of ten. Vertical lines or strokes, like a staff, are
used to represent the numbers one through nine. Ten was represented by a hieroglyph of
what is commonly thought of as a heel bone (some think it could be a yoke.) A coil of rope
stands for 100. A lotus flower or water lily is the representation for 1,000. The number 10,000
is a single bent finger. A frog, sometimes drawn as a tadpole, is the symbol for 100,000. The
figure for 1,000,000 is a kneeling person with arms raised; there are two different hypotheses
about this hieroglyph: it could be either a person in an attitude of supplication or possibly the
god Heh (Eves 6).

(Miller)

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 Numbers which are not powers of ten are written by
using multiple symbols and adding them together.
Egyptian hieroglyphs could be written left-to-right or
right-to-left (and even vertically).

(Miller)

Rational numbers could also be expressed, but only as sums of unit fractions (fractions with a
one in the numerator), except for two-thirds and three-fourths. The hieroglyph indicating a
fraction looked like a mouth, which meant "part":

The numerator was 1 (with the two mentioned exceptions), and the
number for the positive denominator would be drawn below the =
fraction symbol. So one-third was written as:

There were special symbols for , , and for two non-unit fractions, and :

= X = = =

The "mouth" was just placed over the beginning of the "denominator" if it became too large:

(Gullberg 34)

For plus and minus signs, the hieroglyphs shown below were used. Either symbol could be
used for addition or subtraction: if the “feet” pointed into the direction of writing, it signified
addition, pointed away from the writing, it was subtraction.
and
This symbol , meaning beautiful was used in accounting texts by 1740 BC as a symbol for
zero. It is representative of a heart and windpipe. Known today by its consonant sounds, nfr,
the vowel sounds are not known. In constructing tombs and pyramids, horizontal leveling lines
were drawn. One leveling line was the site of reference for the others, and was labeled with
this symbol. Distances were measured relative to that base line. For example: “seven cubits
above nfr” or “two cubits below nfr”. Below the line would be a form of negative numbers
(Wikipedia, “Egyptian Numerals”).

Babylonian
It was the Babylonians who found a way to measure circles and spheres. They were the ones
who divided them into 360 equal parts. Their number system was sexagesimal (base 60); 60
goes into 360 six times. They were famous for their astronomical observations and for their
calculations, which were aided by their invention of the abacus.
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 This is an example of an
ancient abacus (this one
in particular is likely a
reproduction).

http://lookhere3.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/abacus-21.jpg

A common theory that the Babylonians (and several other civilizations) chose 60 as its base
numeral system is that 60 is a superior highly composite number; it was likely chosen due to its
prime factorization: 2 × 2 × 3 × 5. It’s divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. It is
the smallest integer divisible by all integers from 1 to 6.

Their writing and number systems were done using a wedge-tipped reed stylus to make a
mark on a soft clay tablet, which would be exposed in the sun to harden to create a permanent
record. This might explain why the symbol for one was not just a single line, like most
systems.

This system was quite sophisticated, and first appeared around 3100 BC. It is credited as
being the first known positional numeral system. Each power of a base (such as 10, 100, etc.)
in previous number systems required unique symbols to represent them; it was easy to run out
of symbols. This development of a place-value system was extremely important, and made
calculations much easier than with the non-place-value systems.

Babylonians use only two

symbols to represent non-zero
numbers from 1 to 59. Like the
Egyptians, the Babylonians
used two ones to represent
two, three ones for three, and
so on, up to nine. Once they
got to ten, there were too many
symbols, so they turned the
stylus on its side, pressing it to
the clay twice to make a
different symbol. Eleven was
ten and one, twelve was ten
and one and one, and twenty
Wikimedia Commons
was ten and ten, just like the
Egyptians.

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You may notice that the symbols end at fifty-nine. The symbol for sixty seems to be exactly
the same as that for one. Sixty-one is sixty and one, which therefore looks like one and one,
and so on. This is where the positional system comes into play (see below).

A positional number system is one where the numbers are arranged in columns. We use a
positional system, and our columns represent powers of ten. So the right hand column is units
(ones), the next is tens, the next is hundreds, and so on. If you want to add large numbers
without a calculator, you line the numbers up so their units are in the same column. Then you
can add each column, carrying forward to the next, if necessary. The Babylonians had the
same system, but they used powers of sixty rather than ten. With the Babylonian system, the
right-hand column was units (ones), the second, multiples of 60, then multiples of 3600, and so
on. (We will discuss how different bases work in more detail in Unit 2.)

x 3600 (602) x 60 (601) Units (ones) (600) Value

1
1+1=2
10
10 + 1 = 11
10 + 10 = 20
60
60 + 1 + 61
60 + 10 = 70
2 x 60 = 120
(3 x 60) + 12 = 192
10 x 60 = 600
(11 x 60) + 21 = 681
3600
2 x 3600 = 7200
(10 x 3600) + (2 x 60) + 1 = 36121
(2 x 3600) + (11 x 60) + 32 = 7892

They needed to distinguish one plus one (two), from one times sixty plus one (sixty-one). Both
of these have two symbols for one. But the representation of two has the two ones touching,
while the representation for sixty one has a gap between them. Mistakes could be made, but
writing with clearly distinguishable spaces to indicate columns made that easy to avoid.

A more serious problem was that to start with they had no symbol for zero. We use zero to
distinguish between 10 (one ten and no units) and 1 (one unit). The Babylonian symbol for
one and sixty are the same. This wasn’t an issue; it was assumed that if you were counting
things, you would tend to know if you were counting individual things or counting in lots of sixty
(or even 3,600.) So the Babylonians didn't bother with a zero at the end of the number.

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However, it is more serious with gaps in the middle of the number. The number 3601 is not too
different from 3660, and they are both written as two ones. You could say that there should be
a bigger gap for 3601, since the gap represents nothing in the sixties column, but how big
would that gap be? Would a “double” size gap be the same for one person as for another?
They needed a symbol to represent no value in a given column. They did have a zero which
they used only in only in the middle of numbers, but never at the end of a number, the way we
do (such as 860). For example, say a Babylonian is counting things and he knows that there
are large amounts of them, so a single one (no zeroes after it) represents 3,600. The symbol
that looks like two slanting ones is the zero (Kaplan 12).

= (1 x 3600) = 3600
= (1 x 3600) + (1 x 60) = 3660
= (1 x 3600) + (0 x 60) + 1 = 3601

The great advantage of the positional system is that you need only a limited number of
symbols (the Babylonians only had two, plus their symbol for zero) and regardless of size, you
can represent any whole number. Arithmetic is far easier, although multiplication tables would
be huge. The zero was quite necessary.

The legacy of sexagesimal still survives to this day, in the form of degrees (360 in a circle or 60
in an angle of an equilateral triangle), minutes, and seconds in trigonometry and the
measurement of time—although both of these systems are actually mixed radix.

Roman
Ancient Rome used figures which actually are a legacy of the Etruscan period, and were in use
throughout the majority of the Western world until the late 16th century. This system is written
using letters of the Latin alphabet. The Roman numeration is based on a biquinary system
(base 10 with sub-base 5).

I = 1 V = 5 X = 10 L = 50 C = 100 D = 500 M = 1000

To write numbers, the Romans used an additive system and a subtractive system. Symbols
are placed from left to right in order of value, starting with the largest. For example, these
symbols would be added to find the total value:

V + I + I = VII (7) or C + X + X + I (121)

Then, to avoid four characters being repeated in succession (such as IIII or XXXX) these can
be shortened using subtractive notation (subtracting numerals rather than adding), with the
lower valued symbol first, followed by the larger value, as shown:

IX (I before X = 9) or XCIV (X before C = 90 and I before V = 4, 90 + 4 = 94).

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An example using the above rules would be 1924: this is composed of 1 (one thousand), 9
(nine hundreds), 2 (tens), and 4 (four units). To write the Roman numeral, each of the non-
zero digits should be treated separately—like an expansion of our numbers:
1000 + 900 + 20 + 4. In Roman numerals: 1,000 = M, 900 = CM, 20 = XX, and 4 = IV. So
then, 1924 is MCMXXIV. Historically Roman numerals weren’t written so consistently. By the
Middle Ages, a more universal standard for writing numbers using Roman numerals
developed. The following are some general rules regarding the use of subtraction:

 Subtract only powers of ten, such as I (100), X (101), or C (102). Therefore, writing VL for
45 is not allowed: you would write XLV instead.
 Subtract only one numeral from one numeral. Write VIII for 8, not IIX; 19 is XIX, not
IXX.
 Don't subtract a letter from another letter more than ten times greater. This means that
MIM is “illegal”: you can only subtract I from V or X, X from L or C, and C from M.

You may have noted that the largest Roman numeral is M, for 1000. One easy way to write
large numbers is to line up the Ms: MMMMMMMM would be 8000, for instance. But this can
get tiresome quickly. The Romans developed a short-hand for this: when they needed to work
with many large numbers, they often wrote a bar above a numeral. The bar meant “multiply by
1000”. Using this method, 8000 would be (Whitcher).

Originally, the Romans wrote numbers with independent symbols, not letters from the alphabet
as they are now. For example, the Etruscans used I, Λ, X, ⋔, 8, ⊕, for I, V, X, L, C, and M.
Of those, only I and X happened to be letters in their alphabet.

The origin of the system is not definitively known, but there are a few hypotheses about its
development:

1. Tally sticks

Historically, Italian shepherds kept track of their flocks by making notches on tally sticks.
Some evidence indicates Roman numerals were actually derived from those notches. If
this holds true, then 'I' descends not from the letter 'I' but from a notch scored across the
stick. Similar to our own tally marks, every fifth notch was double cut (i.e. ⋀, ⋁, ⋋, ⋌, etc.),
and every tenth was cross cut (X). Eight on a counting stick was represented by eight
tallies, IIIIΛIII, or the eighth mark in a longer series of tallies; it could be abbreviated ΛIII (or
VIII), because a double-cut notch, like this Λ, implies there are four prior notches.
Following the pattern, eighteen was the eighth tally after the first ten, which could be
abbreviated X, and so was XΛIII. In the same way, number four on the stick was the I-
notch that could be felt just before the cut of the Λ (V), so it could be written as either IIII or
IΛ (IV).

The system does not seem to be intended for performing arithmetic, rather it was intended
to be ordinal. When the tallies were converted into writing, the marks were easily identified
with the existing Roman letters I, V and X. The tenth V or X along the stick received an
extra stroke. So 50 had varying representations, but more commonly as a shape like a
superimposed V and I, something like a chicken-track: ᗐ. It eventually had flattened to ⊥
(an inverted T), and soon thereafter became identified with the similar letter L.

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 In much the same manner, 100 was represented by taking one of the various symbols for
50 and adding an extra stroke. The form Ж (a superimposed X and I) became the most
commonly used symbol. Its shape underwent a few variations, with a single C finally
winning out (illustrated below) because the letter stood for the Latin centum, meaning
"hundred".

The hundredth V or X was marked with a box or circle; 500 was like a Ɔ superimposed on
a bar, becoming D or Ð. It was later identified as the letter D; an alternative symbol for
"thousand" was (I) or CIƆ. Since 500 is half of a thousand, its symbol became the right half
of the above symbol, I) or IƆ, and this may have been converted into D.

Meanwhile, 1000 was a circled X: Ⓧ, ⊗, ⊕, and eventually was somewhat identified with
the Greek letter Φ phi. Over time, the symbol changed ↀ, and further evolved into ∞,
then ⋈, and eventually changed to M for the Latin word mille meaning "thousand".

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/images/numeral2bis.gif

The markings in this ancient

Roman abacus seems to support
this theory:

A modern replica of a Roman hand abacus from 1st century AD

http://history-computer.com/CalculatingTools/abacus.html

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 2. Hand signals

Another theory is that the digits are related to hand signals. For example, the numbers I,
II, III, IIII correspond to the number of fingers held up for another to see. Then V
represents that hand upright with fingers together and thumb apart. Either the crossing of
the thumbs, holding both hands up in a cross, or even combining two symbols for five
produces an X.

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/images/numeral1bis.gif

3. Intermediate symbols deriving from few original symbols

A third idea for the origin of Roman numerals states that the basic ciphers were I, X, C and
Φ (or ⊕) and that the symbols for other numbers came about by cutting them in half. For
example, half an X is V, half a C is L and half a Φ/⊕ is D.

Roman numerals are still used today in several specific—sometimes considered formal—
contexts, such as:

 Hour marks on timepieces. In this context 4 is usually written IIII (possibly to maintain a
visual balance).
 Sequels of movies, video games, and other works (ex: Star Wars IV: A New Hope).
 Book volume and chapter numbers.
 Page numbering of prefaces and introductions of books.
 Outlines.
 Occurrences of a large recurring event, such as:
 The Olympic Games (e.g. the XXXI Olympic Winter Games, or XXXI Olympiad)
 The Super Bowl (e.g. Super Bowl XLVII)
 WrestleMania (e.g. WrestleMania XXX)
 Names of monarchs and Popes, e.g. Elizabeth II, Pope Benedict XVI. "II" is pronounced
"the second".
 Generational suffixes for people who share the same name across generations (usually
males). For example: Thurston Howell III (“the third”)
 The year of production of films, television shows and other works of art within the work
itself; for instance, at the end of the credits in a movie the year appears in Roman
Numerals.
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 The year of construction on building faces and cornerstones.
 In music theory, the diatonic functions are identified using Roman numerals.
 In performance practice, individual strings of stringed instruments, such as the violin, are
often denoted by Roman numerals, with higher numbers denoting lower-pitched strings.
 In photography, Roman numerals (with zero) are used to denote varying levels of
brightness when using the Zone System.
 In astronomy, the natural satellites or "moons" of the planets are traditionally designated by
capital Roman numerals.
 In chemistry, Roman numerals are often used to denote the groups of the periodic table
and also used for naming phases of polymorphic crystals, such as ice.
 In earthquake seismology, Roman numerals are used to designate degrees of the Mercalli
intensity scale.

The Romans used a duodecimal (base 12) system for fractions, even though whole numbers
were base ten, possibly because the divisibility of twelve (12 = 3 × 2 × 2) makes it easier to
handle the common fractions of 1/3 and 1/4 than does a system based on ten. On coins, they
used a tally-like notational system based on twelfths and halves. A dot (•) indicated an uncia
"twelfth"; dots were repeated for fractions up to five twelfths. Six twelfths (one-half) was
abbreviated as the letter S for semis "half". Uncia dots were added to S for fractions from
seven to eleven twelfths, just as tallies
were added to V for whole numbers from
six to nine.

For example, to the right is both sides of

a triens coin, which is one-third of an as.
Note the four dots indicating its value of
four-twelfths of an as ( ).

(Wikipedia, “Roman Numerals”)

Wikimedia Commons

Greek
In the 4th century BC, the ancient Greeks started using a numeral system which employed the
Greek letters as numbers. They had different symbols for one through nine, then a new set of
symbols for ten, twenty, thirty, etc., then another set of symbols for one hundred, two hundred,
three hundred, up to nine hundred. It was a number system that is closer to our own number
system than the Egyptian or Roman systems. The disadvantage in this was similar to the
problems experienced in other non-positional counting systems: they eventually ran out of
symbols.

The Greek letters they used are listed below with their numerical values. Since there were
only 24 in the Classical Greek alphabet, they had to find 3 extra symbols. They used 3 archaic
letters placed back into their original places within the alphabet, but which had by then been
dropped as they were no longer required.

14
 Sound Greek Name # Sound Greek Name #
a alpha 1 n ne 50
b beta 2 x xi 60
g gamma 3 Short o omicron 70
d delta 4 P/p pi 80
short e epsilon 5 k / / Koppa (or 90
qoppa)
digamma (aka r rho 100
w / / 6
wau or vau) s sigma 200
z zeta 7 t tau 300
long e eta 8 u upsilon 400
th theta 9 f/ph phi 500
i iota 10 ch chi 600
k/c kappa 20 ps psi 700
l lambda 30 long o omega 800
m mu 40 ts sampi 900
digamma, koppa, and sampi are no longer used in Greek

Not using a placing value system, the Greeks did not have a need for zero.

This is a difficult system for performing arithmetic. There doesn’t appear to be a system to
easily group and combine/simplify. Instead of 1 + 1 = 2, you would just memorize that alpha +
alpha = beta. Because you had no place values, with 30 + 70, we add the zeroes, and we add
three and seven, then carry the one over to the hundreds column getting 100. With this
system, you’d need to memorize lambda + omicron = rho. Multiplication in the Greek system
was even worse.

One effect of using letters as numbers was that when you looked at a word, it could look like a
number instead. However, this was simply seen as the numerical value for a name; the
numerical value of a person’s name was believed to have influence in certain aspects of
his/her life. The Greeks (and the Hebrews, who had a similar counting system) enjoyed
calculating this, and predicting its influence. For example, take the name Elizabeth:

The letters epsilon, lambda, iota, zeta, alpha, beta, epsilon, and theta have the numeric values
5 + 30 + 10 + 7 + 1 + 2 + 5 + 9 = 69. The number for any given name in English may not be
entirely accurate, as we are translating sounds; in other words, you would spell your name
phonetically rather than translating exactly letter for letter. Notice that there is no J in the
Greek alphabet, so if we need to use a J we would use iota instead. There are also two types
of O, and two types of E; if using either of those letters, we would need to decide if we need
the long sound or the short sound. One interesting fact that has led some to find numerical
values for names is that in the Book of Revelations, it says, "Let him that hath understanding
count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six." Various suggestions have been put forth as to what the name might be
that would produce the value of 666. The obstacle in finding the name is that it is quite easy to
calculate the number if the letters are given; however, it is a matter of hit and miss with a lot of

15
guessing to try to come up with letters which will add up to that number, or any desired number
for that matter (Edkins).

As we learned previously, Romans also used their alphabet to represent numbers. Hebrews
and Arabs did as well. Converting words and names into numbers was common in several
languages.

Because words and numbers looked the same, if one needed to distinguish a number from a
word, the Greeks placed a symbol after a number to differentiate it from a word. The symbol
looks like an apostrophe or accent mark (’) and is called “keraia”, which means horn.

Modern Greeks today use Arabic numbers for calculations and Greek numbers for formal
use—much the way we do: Arabic for calculations and Roman numerals for certain uses,
usually formal. However, the form of the archaic letters in particular has changed since
Classical Greek times. In Classical Greece, they only had capital letters. The table above
shows both upper and lower case, as lower case makes it is easier to recognize them as
Greek letters.

In mathematics, we use letters to represent numbers, but those are numbers that are unknown
or variables in a formula. Greek letters have frequent use in mathematics, but of a completely
different nature. When we use a Greek letter it represents a specific number or constant. For
example Pi or is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and phi or is the
golden ratio (which we will discuss in more detail later in Unit 4).

Mayan
The ancient Maya civilization of Central America existed from approximately 200 BC until AD
1540. The Maya had a place value number system, quite similar to the number system we use
today, however, they used rows that increase in place value from the bottom up, rather than
columns. To achieve this place value system they need to find a way to indicate that a row
had nothing in it: they came up with the idea of a placeholder—zero. It is unknown whether
the Maya discovered the need for zero, or if they inherited it from their predecessors, the
Olmec. Whether it was the Maya or the Olmec, they seem to be the first people who used a
place value system and a symbol for zero. Beyond these similarities there are some
significant differences between the Mayan number system
and our modern system. The Mayan system is vigesimal
(base 20) rather than decimal. At some point in their
history, this system increased in its complexity to match
the calendar. We will address only the original form here.

This system also uses a different digit representation. The Mayan numbers are based on three
symbols. Some refer to these symbols as shells, pebbles, and sticks, which may have been
the original counting items. These symbols can be combined to construct the numbers zero
through nineteen. And with the use of the place value system any positive integer can be
formed.

16
 Mayan bar and dot notation
Numbers after 19 were written vertically in powers
of twenty. For example, thirty-three would be
written as one dot above three dots, which are in
turn atop two lines. The first dot represents "one
twenty" or "1×20", which is added to three dots
and two bars, or thirteen. Therefore, (1×20) + 13
= 33. Upon reaching 202 or 400, another row is
started. The number 429 would be written as one
dot above one dot above four dots and a bar, or
(1×202) + (1×201) + 9 = 429. The Maya used
powers of twenty for each row, just as the Hindu-
Arabic numeral system uses powers of tens for
each column.
Wikimedia Commons – Bryan Derksen

= (5 x 400) + (0 x 20) + 14 = 2014

Other than the bar and dot notation, Maya numerals can be illustrated by face type glyphs or
pictures. The face glyph for a number represents the deity associated with the number. These
face number glyphs were rarely used, and are mostly seen only on some of the most elaborate
monumental carvings.
Mayan face glyphs, with equivalents in spoken Yucatc

0, mi 1, hun 2, ca 3, ox 4, can

5, ho 6, uac 7, uuc 8, uaxac 9, bolon

10, lahun 11, holahun 12, lahca’ 13, oxlahun 14, canlahun

15, holahun 16, uaclahun 17, uuclahun 18, uaxaclahun 19, bolonlahun
(Coe, 113)

17
Adding and subtracting numbers below 20 using Maya numerals is very simple. With addition,
just combine the numeric symbols:

After combining symbols, if five or more dots are present in any given place value, each group
of five dots is removed and replaced by a bar. If there are four or more bars, then the four bars
are removed and a dot is added to the next higher row, which is the next place value.

To do subtraction, remove the elements of the subtrahend (the number being subtracted)
symbol from the minuend (the number that something is being subtracted from) symbol:

If there are not enough dots in a minuend position, a bar is replaced by five dots. If there are
not enough bars, a dot is removed from the next higher place-value in the minuend symbol and
four bars are added to the minuend symbol’s place value which is being worked on—just like
borrowing or re-grouping with our decimal system.

The Mayans had several types of what could be considered

calendars; some were used together in concurrent and
overlapping cycles, which comprised the “Calendar Round.”
The solar calendar is one of those cycles in the Calendar
Round; called the Haab’, it is extremely accurate. Each month
consisted of 20 days (likely because their number system was
base-20), with 18 months in a year, totaling 360 days. To
bring the count to 365, there was a 5-day period called Uayeb
or Wayeb’ at the end of the year. These remaining five days
were considered unlucky or dangerous. The first day of each
month began with the number 0, also referred to the “seating”
or “installation” of that month. For example, the first month of
the year is Pop. The first day is called 0 Pop, or the seating of
Pop. The days were numbered from 0 to 19, for a total of 20
days. After 19 Pop came the seating of Wo’, or 0 Wo’. http://www.shannonpeck.com/page/2/

The Western calendar was created at a time when there was no zero. We have no year zero,
nor any day ever numbered zero. What seemed to be an insignificant omission caused
controversy over the precise start of the millennium. The Mayans would never have argued
about whether 2000 or 2001 was the first year in the twenty-first century.

Chinese
Chinese mathematics was defined in ancient times as the art of calculation. Mathematics was
considered both practical and spiritual. The subjects it covered ranged widely, from
administration and water control to religion and astronomy.

18
Around the 14th century BC, the archaeological site of Xiao dun had been the capital of the
kings of the ancient Shang dynasty. In 1899, a major discovery was made: thousands of
bones and tortoise shells were discovered there, and they had been inscribed with ancient
Chinese characters. It was discovered that on one side of the shell there were questions and
the other seemed to have answers to the questions inscribed on them (Chinese Numerals).

Shang Oracle Bone Numerals – 14th Century BC

Wikimedia Commons - Gisling

Many of the inscriptions found have numerical information about men lost in battle, prisoners
taken in battle, the number of sacrifices made, the number of animals killed on hunts, the
number of days or months, etc.

The inscriptions seem to indicate that the number system was base ten. The numbers were
both additive and multiplicative as well.

During the final centuries BC, about the time that mathematical developments in the ancient
Greek world were beginning to falter, the growing trade empire of China was pushing Chinese
mathematics to new achievements.

The principal driving force behind Chinese mathematics developed in response to the empire’s
growing need for mathematically competent administrators. Written over a period of time
starting around 200 BC, a textbook called “Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art” became an
important tool in the education of such a civil service, covering hundreds of problems in
practical areas such as trade, taxation, engineering and the payment of wages (Mastin).

19
There was a widespread fascination with numbers and mathematical patterns in ancient China.
Cosmic significance was attributed to different numbers. Great spiritual and religious
significance was placed on magic squares in particular. These are squares of numbers where
each row, column and diagonal added up to the same total.

The counting rod numerals system uses bamboo rods to represent numbers. It has place
value and decimal numerals for computation, and was used widely by Chinese merchants,
mathematicians and astronomers, as well as having been adopted by Japan and Korea, and
was in use from at least as early the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220), possibly even earlier,
until the 16th century.

The numerals 1 through 9 can be reproduced by two different series of rod configurations:

For many centuries, though they understood the concept of zero, the system lacked a sign for
zero. It was impossible to ensure absolute differentiation between numerals such as 42, 402,
4002, 4020, and 4200 by simply leaving a space between symbols.

As a solution to this problem, a traditional Chinese number symbol was sometimes used as a
separator; at other times, a reckoning board was used. The empty square clarified the place
values. For example:

In the 13th century, Indian influence caused a symbol for zero to be integrated into the rod-
numeral system. This symbol was a circle. This made all numbers, and particularly fractions,
easier to express. In the case of fractions, a zero placed to the left of the number, a leading
zero, designated a decimal marker:

(Gullberg, 51)

A detailed commentary on the “Nine Chapters” was produced in 263 AD by one of the greatest
mathematicians of ancient China: Liu Hui. He was one of the first mathematicians known to
leave roots unevaluated, giving more exact results instead of approximations. He also
formulated an algorithm which calculated the value of π as 3.14159 (correct to five decimal

20
places) by an approximation using a regular polygon with 192 sides. Further, he developed
very early forms of both integral and differential calculus.

A technique known as the Chinese Remainder theorem was being used by Chinese
astronomers in the 6th Century AD in order to measure planetary movements. This theorem
has practical uses even today, such as in internet cryptography (Mastin).

Hindu-Arabic
Today's numbers, also called Hindu-Arabic numbers, are a combination of just 10 symbols or
digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. This is a positional decimal system with its roots in India.

Various symbol sets are used to represent numbers in the Hindu–Arabic system, all of which
evolved from the Brahmi numerals.

The symbols that became 1, 4 and 6 were found in Buddhist inscriptions from around 300 BC.
Their use of the symbols that became 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9 was recorded one century later. These
Brahmi numerals are the ancestors of the Hindu–Arabic glyphs 1 to 9; however, it was not at
that time a positional system, and there was no zero as yet. There were also separate
numerals for each of the tens (10, 20, 30, etc.).

Believed to be from approximately 250 BC, inscriptions on a stone column found in India are
the oldest preserved samples of Hindu-Arabic; but there was still no zero.

Appearing on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated
876 AD, is the first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the
irrefutable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero: a small circle.

Based on the Hindu model, the Arabs developed two versions of numerals, East Arabic and
West Arabic.

East Arabic is the current numeral system in Arab countries. The European version of “Arabic
numerals” bears very little resemblance to the Arabic numerals used in Arab countries today.
This is because European Arabic numerals were modeled primarily on the West Arabic
numerals, which varied considerably both geographically and with time, and which are now
extinct.

The West Arabic numerals originally had the name Gobar, which is Arabic for dust; this is likely
a reference to the practice of performing calculations on the ground or a board covered with
dust or sand. This could then be erased or wiped clean when completed, ready for new
calculations on the same surface. The oldest surviving sample of Gobar numerals in Europe is
a Spanish manuscript from 976 (Gullberg 50).

It is these Gobar/West Arabic numerals that are formally and historically considered the direct
ancestors of the numerals we use today. Although the European writing of the digits was
influenced by Arabic manuscripts, their European design also followed paths independent of
Arabic models.

21
The evolution of our numerals

(Seife 68)

22
The oldest known writing using a fully developed numeration systems appears in a book from
AD 825 by the Persian mathematician al-Khowarizmi. Although the original is lost, a Latin
translation from approximately the year 1120 by the Englishman Robert of Chester exists:
Liber algorismi de numero indorum (“The Book of al-Khowarizmi on Hindu Number”). He
erroneously assumed the numerals to be of Arabic origin (Gullberg 49).

These digits were introduced to Italy within the 12th century by Leonardo of Pisano (aka
Fibonacci), an Italian mathematician.

My father was a public scribe of Bejaia [Algeria], where he worked for his country in
Customs, defending the interests of Pisan merchants who made their fortune there. He
made me learn how to use the abacus when I was still a child because he saw how I
would benefit from this in later life. In this way I learned the art of counting using the
nine Indian figures . . . as follows: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . With these nine numerals,
and with this sign 0, called zephirum in Arabic, one writes all the numbers one wishes.

-- Leonardo Pisano (Hakim 224)

His book, Liber Abaci (“The Book of Calculation”), introduced to Europe the Hindu-Arabic
numerals, the use of zero, and the decimal place system. He addressed the applications for
mathematicians and commercial tradesmen. This helped the educated population see how
much more “user-friendly” this system was than the Roman numerals they were using at that
time. However, Chester’s mistake caught on: this numeral system came to be called “Arabic”
by the Europeans. It was used in European mathematics from the 12th century, and entered
common use from the 15th century to replace Roman numerals.

The shape of the Western Arabic glyphs as now used (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are the
product of their entrance into early typesetting in the late 15th to early 16th century.

Fibonacci's introduction of the system to Europe was restricted to the educated. Adam Ries,
an author of the German Renaissance, receives the credit for first establishing widespread
usage of the decimal positional notation among the general population; largely due to
Rechenung auff der linihen und federn, published in 1522, which targeted the apprentices of
businessmen and craftsmen.

Special Numbers
Zero

The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operations of daily life. No
one goes out to buy zero fish. It is in a way the most civilized of all the cardinals, and its
use is only forced on us by the needs of cultivated modes of thought.
- Alfred North Whitehead

Most ancient people believed that only emptiness and chaos existed before the universe was
created (and many those beliefs still carry on in cultures today). The Hebrew teaching is that
the earth was chaotic and void before God showered it with light and formed its features.

23
The Norse myth tells a tale of an open void that gets covered with ice, and from the chaos
caused by the mingling of fire and ice was born the primal Giant. According to Greek
mythology, at first Darkness was the mother of all things and from Darkness sprang Chaos.
Darkness and Chaos then produced the rest of creation. Hindu tradition tells of a creator who
churns the butter of chaos into the earth. Emptiness and disorder were the original state of the
cosmos, and there was always a nagging fear that at the end of time, disorder and void would
reign once more. Zero represented that void (Seife 19-20).

Some would say that many today still fear zero: how many of us say “oh” instead of “zero”? Is
it a subconscious effort to avoid something we fear? We still have a bit of an odd treatment of
zero. We know that the only place it makes sense on a number line is between -1 and 1. So
why do we place it after 9 on a telephone keypad and on the computer keyboard?

Though not having a positional system, Egyptians developed a symbol for zero at around 1740
BC, used in their accounting texts, and as a starting point for measurement, but not for use in
calculations.

Credited by most as being the first to develop a symbol for zero, around 300 BC the
Babylonians needed a place-holder in their positional number system, and began using a
symbol for an empty column: . In this case, it indicated no value in a column; it held open
the place where there was no number, but did not seem to be considered to be a number in its
own right with a specific value.

Isolated from the eastern hemisphere, the Maya were using a symbol for zero. Also having a
positional number system, they used a shell to represent “none” in any given column.

India is credited with the use of zero that caught on, eventually, throughout the Western world
(the as yet unknown world of the Americas finding its source of zero via the Maya), though the
Western world rejected zero for nearly two millennia. The Greek universe, created by
Pythagoras, Aristotle and Ptolemy, held on long after the collapse of Greek civilization. In that
universe, there is no such thing as nothing. The Greeks specialized in geometry, which had no
real need for zero. (If something could have a length of zero, then it wasn’t there. If it wasn’t
there, why measure it?) The lack of zero stunted the growth both of mathematics (beyond
geometry) and science.

The fear and rejection of zero had to do with religious beliefs, largely based in Aristotelian
doctrines, one of which was, very long story short: the belief that God could not create a
vacuum. In 1277 the bishop of Paris, Étienne Tempier, called an assembly of scholars to
“discuss” Aristotoelianism. Another very long story made short: they decided that God could
make a vacuum if He wanted. Therefore, void is now allowed, and the path for the acceptance
of zero was paved for Christianity (Seife 77).

The word zero came to us through several languages. The root comes from the Sanskrit
shoonya or sunya which means “empty”. From that developed the Arabic term as-ṣifr for “it
was empty” or “nothing”. The earliest mention of this is in Persa in AD 976. In Keys of the
Sciences by Mhammad ibn Amad al-Khwarizmi it was remarked that, if in a calculation, no
number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used “to keep the rows”—the
symbol was referred to as sifr. After that, the word evolved to cifra and zefirum. In 14th
Century France it became chiffre. That same century in Italy it had three versions: zefiro,

24
zevero, and zero. By the 15th Century in Germany they were using ziffer, and at that same
time, both France and England were using our current word, zero (Menninger 401).

Map & timeline (in centuries) of the discovery/use of zero in positional number systems

(McQuillin)

Depending upon the context, there are various words used for zero. Nothing and none are
often used when it comes to the idea of lacking. Words of poetic meaning, often considered
archaic are nought, naught and aught. Words for zero in sports vary and can be specific to
that particular game: nil in soccer, love in tennis and a duck in cricket. It is often called oh.
Slang words for zero include zip, zilch, nada, bupkis, scratch and even duck egg or goose egg
(Wikipedia, “Zero”).

Pi ( )

By about 2,000 BC, men had grasped the significance of the constant that today we call , and
they had a rough approximation of its value. We know that the Babylonians and the Egyptians
(at least) were aware of the fact that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter
was always the same.
=

The Babylonians had arrived at the value by about 2000 BC, and the Egyptians had the
value as being around 1850 BC (Gullberg 89).

Sometime around 287-212 BC, Archimedes turned his attention to circles. He used an idea
that had been tried some two hundred years previous by Antiphon and Bryson: draw two
polygons, one inscribed in a given circle, and the other circumscribed. Antiphon and Bryson
were using the areas of these two polygons to find the area of the circle. Archimedes put his
focus on the perimeters of the two shapes. Beginning with a hexagon, and he doubled the

25
number of sides four times, resulting in two 96-sided polygons, then calculated the perimeters
of the two polygons. He published his findings in his book The Measurement of the Circle as
follows:

The ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter is less than
3 but greater than 3 .

Averaging these two values, we get 3.1419—less than .0003 from the true value (Blatner 18).

Around AD 87-165, an astronomer in Alexandria, Claudius Ptolemy, calculated the ratio to be

◦
3 8’ 30”, which is sexagesimal notation and translates to 3 + + . This value is within
.003% of the correct value

In China, it wasn’t until the beginning of the 2nd century, AD, that the astrologer, Ch’ang Hong,
calculated pi using the circumference of the circle and the perimeter of the circumscribed
square; his method calculated pi as √ (about 3.162). Up until that point, China was using
pi = 3.

Tsu Ch’ung-chih and his son Tsu Keng-chih, astronomers in the 5th century, improved on
China’s calculation of pi using the Greek method from 650 years previous: they used inscribed
and circumscribed polygons. However, they used polygons with as many as 24,576 sides.
The figure they arrived at was (about 3.1415929). This is .000008% different from the
value accepted today. A more accurate value wouldn’t be found for more than a thousand
years (Blatner 25).

Starting around the 15th century, new algorithms based on infinite series (see example below)
revolutionized the computation of pi, and were used by mathematicians including Madhava of
Sangamagrama, Isaac Newton, Leonhard Euler, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Srinivasa
Ramanujan.

A simple infinite series for pi is the Gregory–Leibniz series first discovered by Madhava of
Sangamagrama in the 14th century; it was not widely known in the West until it was
rediscovered in Europe by Gottfried Leibniz and James Gregory in 1668. (In retrospect, the
naming is sometimes modified to the Madhava–Leibniz series in order to recognize Madhava's
contribution):

Infinity (∞)
“In ordinary conversation, infinite means something that is very great in comparison with
everyday things. In mathematics, however, infinity is not a number but a concept of increase
beyond bounds” (Gullberg 30).

The English word infinity is derived from the Latin infinitas, which can be translated as
"unboundedness", which has its root in the Greek word apeiros, meaning "endless".
26
Technically, infinity isn’t a specific number, though we often use it as if it were. However, it
doesn’t behave like a number. It is an idea of something without end.

As it was difficult to define infinity formally in mathematics at the time, most ancient cultures
rejected infinity as passionately as they rejected zero. Archimedes approached the idea in his
efforts to prove that no number is too big to measure. Eventually, some ancient cultures
approached infinity as a philosophical concept.

Anaximander, a Greek philosopher who lived before Socrates used the word apeiron which
means infinite or limitless. This is the earliest recorded idea of infinity. However, the earliest
conclusive use of infinity in its mathematical sense come from Zeno of Elea (~ 490 BC – 430
BC). Zeno was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher of southern Italy, best known for his
paradoxes (Wikipedia, “Zeno of Elea).

The Hindu had references to infinity recorded as early as 500 BC. The Indian mathematical
text Surya Prajnapti (c. 3rd–4th century BC) classifies all numbers into three sets: enumerable,
innumerable, and infinite. Each of these was further subdivided into three orders:

 Enumerable: lowest, intermediate, and highest

 Innumerable: nearly innumerable, truly innumerable, and innumerably innumerable
 Infinite: nearly infinite, truly infinite, infinitely infinite
(Wikipedia, “Infinity”)

Although the concept of infinity is difficult to grasp, the most common definition used in simple
mathematics is not finite, where finite means something that (in theory) can be completely
determined by counting or measurement.

However, we can go beyond our simple definition of not finite to find that there are different
types of infinity. For example, a series or pattern of numbers can continue on to positive
∞ ∞
infinity (+ ), such as 1, 2, 3, 4, . . ., or on to negative infinity (- ), such as -1, -2, -3, -4, . . ..
Georg Cantor, a German mathematician, defined two different types of infinity as well: the set
of natural numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, . . .) continues infinitely, so there are infinitely many natural
numbers. The set of real numbers, which includes the natural numbers, their opposites, and
all the decimals/fractions in between, also continues infinitely, so there are infinitely many real
numbers. However, the infinity associated with real numbers is greater than the infinity
associated with natural numbers. In fact, Cantor's method of proof of this theorem implies the
existence of an "infinity of infinities”. Cantor's work is of great philosophical interest.

Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers was met often by fierce resistance; they were frequently
referred to as a “grave disease” entering into the discipline of mathematics. Personal attacks
included calling Cantor a “scientific charlatan” and a “corrupter of youth.” It was originally
perceived as so counter-intuitive that it was quite shocking to the mathematical world. Many
mathematicians and scientists of great reputation raised their objections. Some Christian
theologians saw Cantor's work as a challenge to the uniqueness of the absolute infinity in the
nature of God. His theories regarding infinity were dismissed by one mathematician, Leopold
Kronecker, as "utter nonsense", "laughable" and "wrong".

27
However, in 1904, the Royal Society awarded Cantor the highest honor it can confer for work
in mathematics, the Sylvester Medal. Some have even suggested that Cantor believed his
theory of transfinite numbers had been communicated to him by God. Defending Cantor’s
theory from its critics, mathematician David Hilbert stated: "No one shall expel us from the
Paradise that Cantor has created."
(Wikipedia, “Georg Cantor”)

Negative Numbers

Just as Indian mathematicians accepted zero while Europeans rejected it for centuries, the
East embraced negative numbers while the West tried to ignore them. Negative numbers
appear in history for the first time in the “Nine Chapters” in China.

As early as 200 BC, Chinese rods represented positive

numbers in red and negative numbers in black. These were
used for commercial and tax calculations where the black
cancelled out the red. “The amount sold was positive
(because of receiving money) and the amount spent in
purchasing something was negative (because of paying out);
so a money balance was positive, and a deficit negative.”

(Rogers)

About AD 300, the Alexandrian mathematician Diophantus (200 - c.284 AD) wrote Arithmetica.
This was a compilation of problems in which he developed a series of symbols to represent
powers of numbers and the “unknown” in a mathematical equation. What he was working in is
now called linear and quadratic equations. In one problem Diophantus referred to an equation
that was equivalent to 4 = 4x + 20. This equation can only be true when x is negative; he
called this result “absurd” (Wikipedia, “Negative Numbers”).

Negative numbers did not appear in India until about AD 620 in the work of Brahmagupta (598
- 670) who used the ideas (and the terms) of “fortunes” being positive and “debts” being
negative. By this time a system based on place-value with zero was established in India.
Along with the idea of zero being a number with a specific value, negative numbers made
more sense. The Hindu astronomer Brahmagupta used a special sign for negatives. He listed
the rules for dealing with quantities of both positive and negative values as follows:

A debt minus zero is a debt.

A fortune minus zero is a fortune.
Zero minus zero is a zero.
A debt subtracted from zero is a fortune.
A fortune subtracted from zero is a debt.
The product of zero multiplied by a debt or fortune is zero.
The product of zero multiplied by zero is zero.
The product or quotient of two fortunes is one fortune.
The product or quotient of two debts is one fortune.
The product or quotient of a debt and a fortune is a debt.
The product or quotient of a fortune and a debt is a debt (Rogers).

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During the 8th century AD, the Islamic world learned about negative numbers from Arabic
translations of Brahmagupta's works, and by the 10th century Islamic mathematicians were
using negative numbers for debts.

Knowledge of negative numbers eventually reached Europe through Latin translations of

Arabic and Indian works.

European mathematicians found the idea of negative quantities troublesome, difficult to fathom
and, for the most part, resisted the concept until the 17th century. However, Fibonacci allowed
negative solutions in financial problems where they could be interpreted as debits (chapter 13
of Liber Abaci, AD 1202) and later as losses (in Flos).

English mathematician, Francis Maseres, wrote in 1759 that negative numbers "darken the
very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature
excessively obvious and simple". His conclusions were that negative numbers were
nonsensical (Wikipedia, “Negative Numbers”).

In the 18th century it was common practice to ignore any negative results derived from
equations, on the assumption that they were meaningless.

29
Discussion questions:
1. What are the benefits of each of the number systems explored?

2. What are the limitations of each of the number systems explored?

3. Which of the ancient number systems would be easiest for performing every day
computations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division? Which do you
think would be the most difficult, and why?

4. How did the changes in representations of numbers allow for more complex
mathematics?

5. How did the needs of a civilization influence the development of its mathematics?

6. What happens to mathematics when civilizations meet?

7. How does each ancient system compare to our current number system?

8. Why do we still use Roman numerals in specific circumstances? Is there a rule for
knowing when to use them?

9. How would our world be different without negative numbers?

10. How would our world be different without zero?

11. What does it mean to “square the circle”?

12. How does recognizing infinity make a difference in mathematics?

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 Unit 2: Number Bases
A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers; it is a mathematical notation for
representing numbers using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner. Symbols and
position must be defined to be understood. For example, the two symbols written "11" could
be interpreted as the binary symbol for three, the decimal symbol for eleven, the symbol for
thirteen in duodecimal (base 12), or a symbol for other numbers in different bases.

Ideally, a numeral system will:

 Represent a useful set of numbers (e.g. all integers, or rational numbers)

 Give every number represented a unique representation (or at least a standard
representation)
 Reflect the algebraic and arithmetic structure of the numbers.

For example, using ten symbols, 0-9, we are able to represent any given quantity with a unique
representation. Ten is 10, sixteen is 16, and three hundred sixty-four and eight tenths is 364.8.

Below are representations of the first fourteen numbers in different bases:

Base ten:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Base seven:

1 2 3 4 5 6 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 20

Base five:

1 2 3 4 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 22 23 24

Base two:

1 10 11 100 101 110 111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110

If the base is greater than 10, we need to invent some symbols for those numbers greater than
9 and less than the base. For example, in a duodecimal system (base 12) we need new single
symbols for ten and eleven. The Dozenal Society’s (previously called the Duodecimal Society)
symbol for the number ten is “X” and they call it dek. The number for eleven is “ ” and they
call it el. Using these two new symbols, the first fourteen numbers in a base twelve are shown
below.

Base twelve:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 X 10 11 12

34
In situations where there might be confusion, a base can be specified via subscript. For
example, 101102 indicates that the number 10110 is written in base 2, or 60517 indicates base
7.

Decimal - base ten

Before we can begin to grasp the basics of any other base, we need a quick review of our own.

Base number systems are positional, with the value of each position being defined by its base.
Decimal is base ten. Each column is a multiple of ten; more specifically, each column is a
power of ten. You learned our number system with these labels for each column (columns
continue infinitely to the left and to the right, for all bases):

Ten- Decimal Ten-

thousands hundreds tens ones tenths hundredths thousandths
thousands point thousandths

3 7 9 1 5 . 6 2 4 8

The number above is thirty-seven thousand nine hundred fifteen and six thousand two hundred
forty-eight thousandths. It is written 37,915.6248

It can be expanded in this manner: 30,000 + 7,000 + 900 + 10 + 5 + .6 + .02 + .004 + .0008

There are 3 ten-thousands, 7 thousands, 9 hundreds, 1 ten, 5 ones, 6 tenths, 2 hundredths, 4

thousandths, and 8 ten-thousandth.

Let’s look at it with new names for each column:

Radix
104 103 102 101 100 10-1 10-2 10-3 10-4
point
3 7 9 1 5 . 6 2 4 8

Negative exponents indicate a fraction. Fractions can be expressed as “decimals”. Numbers

to the right of a decimal point represent fractional values. Negative one is the first column to
the right, -2 is the second column, -3 is the third column, and so forth. You will learn more
about negative exponents later; for now, you only need to understand that they are fractions.

“Radix point” is the term for what we call the decimal point; since “decimal” only applies in a
base-ten system, radix is the term that applies in any base. Numbers to the right of a radix
point in any base represent fractional values.

We can re-write the above expansion this way:

(3 104) + (7 103) + (9 102) + (1 101) + (5 100) + (6 10-1) + (2 10-2) + (4 10-3) + (8 10-4)

35
The number remains the same, we only changed the name of each column to an equivalent
name; however, it is done in such a way that we can see a pattern. This pattern can be
applied to any base.

Notice that the largest digit in available for any column in base ten is 9.

Binary - base two

History

The first known description of a binary numeral system dates back to around the 5 th to 2nd
centuries BC. An Indian scholar by the name of Pingala used binary numbers (representing
short syllables and long syllables) to describe the timing or meter of poetry. In the 11th
century, scholar and philosopher Shao Yong developed a method for arranging hexagrams,
represented in binary, with yin as 0 and yang as 1. Variations on the binary system have been
found in traditional African cultures and medieval Western cultures in their divinations systems.
In 1605 Francis Bacon discussed a system whereby letters of the alphabet could be reduced
to sequences of binary digits, which could then be encoded as scarcely visible variations in the
font in any random text.

Our modern binary number system was discovered by Gottfried Leibniz in 1679. Leibniz's
system uses 0 and 1, like the modern binary numeral system (Bunt, Jones, Bedient 231-232).

British mathematician George Boole published a landmark paper in 1854 detailing an algebraic
system of logic that would become known as Boolean algebra. Boolean algebra deals strictly
with objects or ideas that have only two possible states: on/off, closed/open, etc. His research
would later be instrumental in designing digital electronic circuitry (Gullberg 252).

Claude Shannon is considered the founding father of electronic communications. He wrote

his master's thesis at MIT in 1937, entitled “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching
Circuits”. He applied Boolean algebra and binary arithmetic, using electronic relays and
switches for the first time in history. Shannon's thesis laid the theoretical foundations for digital
circuits and practical digital circuit design (Wikipedia, “Claude Shannon”).

While working at Bell Labs in November 1937, George Stibitz completed a relay-based
computer. The system consisted of the relays, a dry cell, flashlight bulbs, and metal strips cut
from a tobacco can. His colleagues later named it the "Model K", because it was built on his
Kitchen table. This computer was able to perform calculations using binary addition. Because
of this, Bell Labs authorized Stibitz to head up a full research program in late 1938. Their
Complex Number Computer, completed January 8, 1940, was able to calculate complex
numbers. In a demonstration to the American Mathematical Society conference at Dartmouth
College on September 11, 1940, Stibitz was able to send the Complex Number Calculator
remote commands over telephone lines by a teletype. It was the first computing machine ever
used remotely over a phone line.
(Wikipedia, “Binary Numeral System”)

36
 Representation

In binary, instead of each column being a power of ten, each column is a power of two.

Radix
24 23 22 21 20 2-1 2-2 2-3 2-4
point
“sixteens” “eights” “fours” “twos” “ones” . “halves” “fourths” “eighths” “sixteenths”

1 1 0 0 1 . 1 0 0 1

This number in binary is written: 11001.1001, which means:

(1 24) + (1 23) + (0 22) + (0 21) + (1 20) + (1 2-1) + (0 2-2) + (0 2-3) + (1 10-4)

There is one sixteen, one eight, no fours, no twos, one one, one half, no fourths, no eighths,
and one sixteenth. So in our decimal system, it would be:
16 + 8 + 1 + + = 25
The number 111 in binary is seven; 101 is five.

In our decimal system, we add by column, and “carry” to the next column to the left whenever
the sum is greater than 9.

24 4 + 8 = 12. We keep the ones (2), and carry

For example: + 48 the tens to the tens column.
72
2 + 4 + 1 (the one we carried) = 7

Addition in binary is similar: 11010

+ 1011
100101

Starting on the right: 0+1=1

1+1=2 but there is no 2, two is 10 in binary, so keep the zero,

and carry the 1 to the next column.

0 + 0 +1 (the one we carried) = 1

1+1=2 but there is no 2, two is 10 in binary, so keep the zero,

and carry the 1 to the next column.

1 + 0 + 1 (the one we carried) = 2 but there is no 2, two is 10 in

binary, so keep the zero, and
carry the 1 to the next column.

0 + 1 (the one we carried) = 1

37
So the answer is 100101: (1 25) + (0 24) + (0 23) + (1 22) + (0 21) + (1 20)

In decimal this is one thirty-two, no sixteens, no eights, one four, no twos, and one one:
32 + 4 + 1 = 37.

Uses

We discussed the Bacairi and the Bororo of Brazil in our first unit. Their number systems are
as follows: one, two, two and one, two and two, two and two and one, and so forth (Seife 7).
This counting by twos is actually a simplified binary system.

Binary can be just about anything that has two choices: on/off, up/down, right/wrong,
true/false, yes/no, closed/open, etc.

We use binary for computer programming.

Zero and one are actually representations of
off and on. A “switch” is either off or on, and
combinations of “switches” being off and on
tell the computer what to do.

In computer terminology bit stands for

binary digit. A bit is one “switch” being off
or on, either 0 or 1. It is the smallest
storage unit in a computer.

A simple light switch is binary: on or off.

Morse code is the first use of binary code in

telecommunications. Rather than “on” or
“off”, it is two lengths of sounds: short or
long; it is a series of “dits” and “dahs”.

Braille is an arrangement of dot positions

that can be manually felt, and each position
is either raised or not raised; it is a binary
code.

In addition to various computer codes (such as ASCII or EBCDIC), codes for disk drives,
calculators, MP3, and JPEG are all binary codes; every “digital” device uses some form of
binary code.

Quinary - base 5
History & Uses

As we previously discussed, humans like to count using body parts, so a possible origination of
a quinary system is that there are five fingers on either hand. Base five uses the digits 0–4.

38
Quinary, as all the systems we are discussing in this unit, is a positional system. The digits 0,
1, 2, 3, and 4 are used to represent any real number. According to this method, five is written
as 10, twenty-five is written as 100 and sixty is written as 220.

Many languages use quinary number systems, including a few Australian aboriginal
languages, and a native language in Bolivia.

Our standard tally mark system is a base five. Once five marks are made, we start over:

A decimal system with 5 as a sub-base is called biquinary, and is found in Wolof of the Niger-
Congo family of languages, and Khmer of Cambodia. A vigesimal system with 5 as a sub-
base is found in Nahuatl and the Maya numerals.

Roman numerals are a biquinary system; other than one, the symbols are in multiples of fives
and tens. The numbers 1, 5, 10, and 50 are written as I, V, X, and L respectively. Eight is VIII
and seventy is LXX.

The Chinese and Japanese versions of the abacus use a biquinary system to simulate a
decimal system for ease of calculation.

19th Century Chinese Abacus

http://traveltoeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/wpid-Photo-Jul-25-2012-140-PM.jpg

Units of currencies are commonly partially or wholly biquinary.

39
In the video game Riven and subsequent games of the Myst franchise, the D'ni language uses
a quinvigesimal numeral system, in which two sub-bases of 5, with one being a multiplier of the
other, are used.
(Wikipedia, “Quinary”)

In the late 1950s, IBM used biquinary in what is considered the earliest ancestor of the
personal computer: the IBM 650. Rather than binary, it was programmed in decimal.

Each digit was represented in seven bit ‘bi-quinary’ notation: one bit out of 5
represented a value from zero to four; one bit out of two indicated whether or not to add
5 to that value, giving the electronic equivalent of the abacus. The front panel had rows
of lights in groups of five to display register contents. For example, the integer 281
would be displayed as indicated below, where a display light of the form 0 is considered
OFF, and one of the form * is considered ON.

* 0 0 * * 0
0 5 0 5 0 5
1 6 1 6 1 * 6
2 * 7 2 7 2 7
3 8 3 * 8 3 8
4 9 4 9 4 9

The complete displays were 10 digits long, with the sign on the right side, just 2 lights in
the same space as a full digit (Miller).

Representation

In quinary, instead of each column being a power of ten, each column is a power of five.
(Recall that the columns continue infinitely to the left and to the right, but we only write as
many as are needed to accommodate the number.)

Radix
54 53 52 51 50 5-1
point
“six “one
hundred hundred “twenty-
“fives” “ones” . “fifths”
twenty- twenty- fives”
fives” fives”
1 0 4 3 2 . 3

This number in quinary is written: 10432.3

Which means: (1 54) + (0 53) + (4 52) + (3 51) + (2 50) + (3 5-1)

40
There is one set of 625, no sets of 125, four sets of 25, 3 sets of five, 2 sets of ones, and 3
sets of fifths. In our decimal system: 625 + 100 + 15 + 2 + = 742 = 742.6

Duodecimal - base 12
Representation

Recall that if the base is greater than 10, we need to invent some symbols for those numbers
greater than 9 and less than the base. In a duodecimal system we need new single symbols
for ten and eleven. The Dozenal Society’s symbol for the number ten is “X” and they call it
dek. The number for eleven is “ ” and they call it el or elv. Here are the symbols that
represent all 12 digits in base twelve: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, X,

Numerical Radix
10,000 1,000 100 10 1 .1 .01
representation point
ten
thousand hundred ten one tenth hundredth
thousand
Decimal value .
4 103 102 101 100 10-1 10-2
10
“do-mo” “mo” “gro” “do” one “edo” “egro”
124 123 122 121 120 12-1 12-2
Dozenal
;
value dozen
great-
great grosses dozens units
grosses
grosses

The above terms are shortened from words the society originally used for many years. For
example the number 1,000 was called “megro”. Megro was shortened from mega-gross, or
great gross. Eventually, megro was shortened to “mo.” Gross became “gro”; dozen became
“do”.

Pronunciations follow the above pattern. The base dek number 345,670,000 is pronounced
“three hundred forty-five million, six hundred seventy thousand.” The dozenal number
8,65X,300 is pronounced “el do eight bi-mo, six gro five do dek mo, three gro” (Zirkel).

Also notice that the radix symbol is a semi-colon.

History & Uses

Historically, units of time in many civilizations are duodecimal. There are twelve signs of the
zodiac, twelve months in a year, and the Babylonians originally had twelve hours in a day.
Traditional Chinese calendars, clocks, and compasses are based on the twelve Earthly
Branches (a Chinese system for reckoning time based on the orbit of Jupiter).

41
The number 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, making it versatile as a denominator in fractions.
Three of the most common fractions are halves, thirds, and fourths. For example, since our
standard unit of measure, the foot is divided into 12 inches: foot is 6 inches, foot is 4
inches, foot is 3 inches. The numbers 6, 4, and 3 are all whole numbers, which means that
the whole numbers in inches can be used: fractions without fractional notation.

This is a possible explanation as to why we have 12 inches in a foot, 12 ounces in a troy

pound, 12 old British pence in a shilling, and 24 (12 × 2) hours in a day. Many items are
counted by the dozen, the gross (144, which is 122) or the great gross (1728, which is 123).
Bakers sell items by the dozen to this day. As mentioned in the previous unit, the Romans
used a fraction system based on 12, which we saw on their ancient coins, but which also
included the uncia. The unica is an ancient Roman unit of measure, something like an inch.
There are 12 unicae in a pes (another length used in ancient Rome.) The word unica is the
root for the English words ounce and inch. Charlemagne established a monetary system that
also had a mixed base of twelve and twenty, the remnants of which persist in many places.
Before converting their money to a decimal system in 1971, Ireland and the United Kingdom
used a mixed duodecimal-vigesimal currency system (12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings or 240
pence to the pound sterling or Irish pound) (Wikipedia, “Duodecimal”).

The importance of 12 has been attributed to the number of lunar cycles in a year, and also to
the fact that humans have 12 finger bones in one hand (three in each of four fingers). It is
possible to count to 12 with your thumb acting as a pointer,
touching each finger bone in turn. Many regions of Asia still use a
traditional finger counting system that works in this way; this could
help to explain the occurrence of numeral systems based on 12
and 60. In this system, the right hand counts repeatedly to 12,
displaying the number of iterations on the left, until five dozen, or
60 is reached (Wikipedia, “Duodecimal”).

Some people believe that base 12 is the only base that makes any
logical sense. They have even formed an organization to further
http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/sites/
default/files/db38206_0.pdf that cause: the Dozenal Society of America was founded in 1116
(1944 in decimal). “The DSA is a voluntary, nonprofit educational
corporation, organized for the conduct of research and
education of the public in the use of dozenal (also called
duodecimal or base twelve) in calculations, mathematics,
weights and measures, and other branches of pure and
applied science” (Zirkel). Its goal is to “draw attention to
the advantages of the Dozen (or twelve-based) system for
numeration and measurement. We consider that the
decimal system is inadequate and of limited competence in
many aspects of numeration. Decimals handicap the
teaching of arithmetic and so inhibit understanding of the
physical world and the decimal system is unable to
express in simple terms the common proportions by which
we order our practical and economic activities” (Dozenal). A current day clock using
duodecimal numerals

42
 According to this society, counting in tens is a “biological
accident”.

The Dozenal Society of Great Britain uses a different symbol

for dek—more like an upside down 2. They also number their
clock with a do (10) at the top rather than zero.

Equivalent values
Decimal Dozenal
12 10 one dozen
13 11 one dozen one
16 14 one dozen four
30 26 two dozen six
40 34 three dozen four
42 36 three dozen six
59 4 four dozen el
70 5X five dozen dek
72 60 six dozen
90 76 seven dozen six
101 8 eight dozen five

Dozenal Addition Table Dozenal Multiplication Table

http://www.dozenal.org/drupal/sites/default/files/db31315_0.pdf
The red numbers along the diagonal are the perfect squares .

43
 Hexadecimal - base 16
Hexadecimal is commonly used in computer science. Again, because we only have ten
symbols to represent our numbers, we need to find extra symbols in order to represent a
system that is based in 16. A common way to represent the remaining digits is by
supplementing with our alphabet:

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F

Radix
162 161 160 16-1
point
“two
hundred “sixteens” “ones” . “sixteenths”
fifty-sixes”

The hexadecimal number 3B02A.F represents in decimal:

(3 164) + (11 163) + (0 162) + (2 161) + (10 160) + (15 16-1) = 241711.875

Hexadesimal Multiplication Table

Each hexadecimal digit represents four
binary digits (bits). Its primary use is as
a hexadecimal notation that is considered
to be a more human-friendly representation
of binary-coded values in computing and
digital electronics. One hexadecimal digit
represents a nibble; a nibble (4 bits) is half
of a byte (8 bits). For example, byte values
can range from 0 to 255 (decimal), but may
be more conveniently represented as two
hexadecimal digits in the range 00 to FF.
Hexadecimal is also commonly used to
represent computer memory addresses.

An example of hexadecimal use can be found

in the design of webpages: color values are
given hexadecimal values.
Wikimedia Commons – Bernard Ladenthin

The purple boxes on the diagonals contain the

numbers which are perfect squares.

(Wikipedia, “Hexadecimal”)

44
 Other Bases
In the previous unit, we found that the Maya used a vigesimal (base 20) numeral system. The
Babylonians used a sexagesimal (base 60) system. It is possible to do mathematics in any
base.

There are a few other bases that were invented, but haven’t really caught on. One such base
is negabinary, which is a base of -2. The values of the columns are 1, -2, 4, -8, 16, -32, and
so on. It appears that negabinary was first invented by Vittorio Grunwald in 1885. It was used
in a few experimental computers in the 1950s (Cox). So, 11 is 1 + -2, 101 is 1 + 4, and 1111 is
1 + -2 + 4 + -8.

In 1955, high school student Donald Knuth invented quarter-imaginary numbers. This
system uses a base of 2i (i is the square root of -1, and is an imaginary number.) (Cox) A
further explanation needs a better understanding of imaginary numbers—you will learn about
those much later.

Another strange system is called balanced ternary. It is considered a “non-standard

positional number system”. That is a system that is positional, but it follows a completely
different set of rules and patterns. It is useful for comparison logic. While it is considered to be
a ternary (base 3) number system, in the standard (“unbalanced”) ternary system, digits have
values 0, 1 and 2. The digits in the “balanced” ternary system have values −1, 0, and 1.

Below is a table of various bases with their names. This list is by no means complete. Do you
see any patterns in the names as relates to the number?

2 Binary 12 Duodecimal 26 Hexavigesimal

3 Ternary 13 Tridecimal 27 Septemvigesimal
4 Quarternary 14 Tetradecimal 28 Octovigesimal
5 Quinary 15 Pentadecimal 30 Trigesimal
6 Senary 16 Hexadecimal 32 Duotrigesimal
7 Septenary 18 Octodecimal 35 Pentatrigesimal
8 Octal 20 Vigesimal 36 Hexatrigesimal
9 Nonary 21 Unvigesimal 60 Sexagesimal
10 Decimal 24 Tetravigesimal 64 Tetrasexagesimal
11 Undecimal 25 Pentavigesimal 85 Pentaoctagesimal

(Wikipedia, “List of Numeral Systems”)

45
Discussion questions:
1. Why do you think humans use a base ten system and what base system might a spider
or other creature use?

2. What are the benefits of these differently based systems?

3. What are the limitations of these differently based systems?

4. Why do computers use base 2?

5. How do the calendars of various cultures relate to the base systems in their
mathematics?

6. Which computations are made easier in different number systems?

7. Do you agree with the Dozenal Society that we should convert everything to base 12?
Why or why not?

8. How are different number systems revealed in nature?

9. Which base do we use for time? Do we use only one base? Should time be converted
to a base-ten system? Why or why not?

10. How is -1, 0, 1 “balanced”?

11. Using the table on the previous page, find at least three uses for any base(s) that
were not previously mentioned in this unit.

12. Can all numbers be represented in any base without a zero? Explain.

13. Is it possible to have a base 1? If so, what would it look like? If not, why not?

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 Unit 3: Codes
Codes have been used throughout history and into current day. They are used to send
messages, identify products, people, locations, bank accounts, etc., they collect information
(i.e. shopper loyalty cards), and they protect information.

Codes and encryptions can involve one-to-one relationships, algorithms, or both. One-to-one
relationships can be symbol to letter, symbol to word, symbol to sound, etc. Algorithms in
codes are step-by-step procedures followed in order to encrypt or decrypt messages.

Cryptography
Traditionally, cryptography is the study of ways to convert information from its normal,
comprehensible form into an obscured guise, unreadable without special knowledge — the
practice of encryption. In the past, cryptography was used to ensure secrecy in important
communications, such as between spies, military leaders, royalty, popes, secret societies, and
diplomats. However, the field of cryptography has been expanding for the last few decades.
For instance, it is used in digital signatures, digital cash (debit/ATM cards), digital rights
management patent protection (such as on intellectual property), and securing electronic
commerce—Paypal, Visa, digital checks. Cryptography is such that users may not even be
aware of its presence, such as the infrastructure for computing and telecommunications.

Encryption
Encryption is the process of encoding messages (or information) in such a way that
eavesdroppers or hackers cannot read it, but that authorized parties can. In an
encryption scheme, the message or information (referred to as plaintext) is encrypted
using an encryption algorithm, turning it into an unreadable ciphertext. This is usually
done with the use of an encryption key, which specifies how the message is to be
encoded. Any adversary that can see the ciphertext should not be able to determine
anything about the original message. An authorized party, however, is able to decode
the ciphertext using a decryption algorithm—usually requiring a secret decryption key—
that adversaries do not have access to. For technical reasons, an encryption scheme
usually needs a key-generation algorithm to randomly produce keys.

There are two basic types of encryption schemes: symmetric key and public-key. In
symmetric-key schemes, the encryption and decryption keys are the same. Thus
communicating parties must agree on a secret key before they wish to communicate. In
public-key schemes, the encryption key is published for anyone to use and encrypt
messages. However, only the receiving party has access to the decryption key and is
capable of reading the encrypted messages. Public-key encryption is a relatively recent
invention: historically, all encryption schemes have been symmetric-key (also called
private-key) schemes.

Encryption has long been used by militaries and governments to facilitate secret
communication. It is now commonly used in protecting information within many kinds of
civilian systems. For example, the Computer Security Institute reported that in 2007,

50
71% of companies surveyed utilized encryption for some of their data in transit, and
53% utilized encryption for some of their data in storage. Encryption can be used to
protect data ‘at rest’, such as files on computers and storage devices (e.g. USB flash
drives). In recent years there have been numerous reports of confidential data such as
customers' personal records being exposed through loss or theft of laptops or backup
drives. Encrypting such files at rest helps protect them should physical security
measures fail. Digital rights management systems which prevent unauthorized use or
reproduction of copyrighted material and protect software against reverse engineering is
another somewhat different example of using encryption on data at rest.

Encryption is also used to protect data in transit, for example data being transferred via
networks (e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones,
wireless intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines.
There have been numerous reports of data in transit being intercepted in recent years.
Encrypting data in transit also helps to secure it as it is often difficult to physically secure
all access to networks.

Encryption, by itself, can protect the confidentiality of messages, but other techniques
are still needed to protect the integrity and authenticity of a message; for example,
verification of a message authentication code (MAC) or a digital signature. Standards
and cryptographic software and hardware to perform encryption are widely available,
but successfully using encryption to ensure security may be a challenging problem. A
single slip-up in system design or execution can allow successful attacks. Sometimes
an adversary can obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the
encryption.

One of the earliest public key encryption applications was called Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP). PGP is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides
cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. It is often used for
signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories and whole disk
partitions to increase the security of e-mail communications.

Digital signature and encryption must be applied at message creation time (i.e. on the
same device it has been composed) to avoid tampering. Otherwise any node
(connection point) between the sender and the encryption agent could potentially
tamper [with] it. It should be noted that encrypting at the time of creation only adds
security if the encryption device itself has not been tampered with (Wikipedia,
“Encryption”).

51
 Familiar and Common Codes
We use and come into contact with codes every day. We may not even realize we are reading
and understanding a code. For example, our alphabet is a code. How many of the following
codes do you recognize?

Greek Alphabet

http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/images/greek_alphabet.gif

Mandarin Chinese

http://www.archchinese.com/bingo_card_maker.png

52
 Russian Alphabet

http://www.yarussky.com/images/russkiyAlphabet.jpg

QR Codes

Wikimedia Commons - brdall

Wikimedia Commons - Rhey T. Snodgrass & Victor F. Camp, 1922

During the Great Depression, hobos (migratory workers, usually broke, and constantly looking
for work—not to be mistaken for “tramps” or “bums”) used to leave messages for each other,
usually written using coal or chalk. It might be written on a fence, tree, sign, or anywhere else
the message was needed and would be seen.

53
 Hobo Code

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1WyTDeIZB_A/TlE7dygvIxI/AAAAAAAADIY/9NLamG4eJf0/s1600/hobo-railroad-signs-symbols.jpg

American Sign Language

http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/writing/asl.GIF

54
 Braille

http://cdn.worldcupblog.org/www.worldcupblog.org/files/2009/05/braillepic.gif

Music

http://d29ci68ykuu27r.cloudfront.net/product/Look-Inside/large/1414294_01.jpg

55
 Basic Coded Messages
One of the simplest codes is the shifted alphabet code. Whoever sets it up would decide how
many places, and if the shift is up or down. For example, if I chose a 5-place shift down, then
the letter P would represent a letter K (five places to the left of P).

Other examples of simple codes are: use only every third word, or the first letter of every word,
or the “mirror image” of the message.

A Greek historian, Aeneas the Tactician, introduced a clever form of steganography. The
sender opens a book or magazine (or a scroll back then), and makes tiny holes with the point
of a pin beneath specific letters. The pinholes would be invisible to the casual reader.
However, the recipient could then hold up the page to the light, and the pinpricked letters spell
out the message.

Benjamin Franklin used a method in which a long passage from a French essay was selected.
He numbered each letter and punctuation mark and used the numbers as his ciphertext. The
first sentence of the key looks like this:

(Blackwood 67)
Using just this small section of the key, a u can be enciphered by either a 3 or a 10, and an e
by a 5, 13, 24, 26, or 29.

Wikimedia Commons
A selection of the ciphertext from The Adventures of the Dancing Men,
A Sherlock Holmes adventure by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“I AM HERE ABE SLANEY”

(Blackwood 20)

56
 (Blackwood 18)

The cipher alphabet and code words from the nomenclator of Mary Queen of Scots

(Blackwood 50)

57
 In the 1700s, to keep their records private, the
Freemasons used what was called the Pigpen
Cipher. Rather than substituting one letter for
another, it substitutes letters with symbols.

This is a one-to-one relationship cipher. Each letter corresponds to a symbol. This symbol is
the shape surrounding the letter. To encrypt a message, find each letter’s position in the grids,
then sketch the portion of the grid to represent it.

To decipher, just do the reverse:

Images from Wikimedia Commons & http://resources.teachnet.ie/jroberts/2006/images/pigpen.gif

58
Petroglyphs – Newspaper Rock, Utah

http://geology.com/articles/petroglyphs/newspaper-rock-petroglyphs.jpg

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

http://www.jimloy.com/hiero/yourname.gif

59
 One- and Two-Part Codes

Codes are defined by "codebooks" (physical or notional), which are dictionaries of

codegroups listed with their corresponding plaintext. Codes originally had the
codegroups assigned in “plaintext order” for convenience of the code designed, or the
encoder. For example, in a code using numeric code groups, a plaintext word starting
with "a" would have a low-value group, while one starting with "z" would have a high-
value group. The same codebook could be used to "encode" a plaintext message into a
coded message or "codetext", and "decode" a codetext back into plaintext message.

However, such "one-part" codes had a certain predictability that made it easier for outsiders to
notice patterns. By noticing patterns they could "crack" or "break" the message, revealing the
plaintext, or part of it. To solve this problem, codemakers designed codes with no predictable
relationship between the codegroups and the ordering of the matching plaintext. This meant
that two codebooks were now required: one for encoding, and the other for decoding.
Students of foreign languages work much the same way; for example, a French-speaking
person learning to speak English would need both an English-French and a French-English
dictionary. Such "two-part" codes required more effort to develop, and twice as much effort to
distribute (and discard safely when replaced), but they were harder to break (Wikipedia, “Code
(Cryptography)”).

One-Time Codes

A one-time code is a prearranged word, phrase or symbol that is intended to be used

only once to convey a simple message, often the signal to execute or abort some plan
or confirm that it has succeeded or failed. One-time codes are often designed to be
included in what would appear to be an innocent conversation. Done properly they are
almost impossible to detect, though a trained analyst monitoring the communications of
someone who has already aroused suspicion might be able to recognize a comment
like "Aunt Bertha has gone into labor" as having an ominous meaning. Famous
examples of one time codes include:

 "One if by land; two if by sea" in "Paul Revere's Ride" made famous in the poem by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The number of lights shining from the tower indicated
by which route the British were coming)
 "Climb Mount Niitaka" - the signal to Japanese planes to begin the attack on Pearl
Harbor
 During World War II the British Broadcasting Corporation's overseas service
frequently included "personal messages" as part of its regular broadcast schedule.
The seemingly nonsensical stream of messages read out by announcers were
actually one time codes intended for Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents
operating behind enemy lines. An example might be "The princess wears red
shoes" or "Mimi's cat is asleep under the table". Each code message was read out
twice. By such means, the French Resistance were instructed to start sabotaging
rail and other transport links the night before D-day.
 "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear" was a signal (broadcast on radio) to start the
nationalist military revolt in Spain on July 17, 1936.

Sometimes messages are not prearranged and rely on shared knowledge hopefully
known only to the recipients. An example is the telegram sent to U.S. President Harry
60
Truman, then in Potsdam to meet with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, informing Truman
of the first successful test of an atomic bomb.

"Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem
satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Local press release necessary as
interest extends great distance. Dr. Groves pleased. He returns tomorrow. I will
keep you posted."
(Wikipedia, “Code (Cryptography)”)

Idiot Code

An idiot code is a code that is created by the parties using it. This type of
communication is akin to the hand signals used by armies in the field.

Example: Any sentence where “day” and “night” are used means “attack”. The location
mentioned in the following sentence specifies the location to be attacked.

 Plaintext: Attack Gotham.

 Codetext: We walked day and night through the streets but couldn't find it!
Tomorrow we'll head into Gotham.

An early use of the term appears to be by George Perrault, a character in the science
fiction book Friday by Robert A. Heinlein:

The simplest sort [of code] and thereby impossible to break. The first ad told the
person or persons concerned to carry out number seven or expect number seven
or it said something about something designated as seven. This one says the
same with respect to code item number ten. But the meaning of the numbers
cannot be deduced through statistical analysis because the code can be
changed long before a useful statistical universe can be reached. It's an idiot
code... and an idiot code can never be broken if the user has the good sense not
to go too often to the well.

Terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said that the men who carried out the September
11, 2001, attacks on the United States used basic e-mail and what he calls "idiot code"
to discuss their plans.
(Wikipedia, “Code (Cryptography)”)

WWII Navajo Code Talkers

Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo Jima: the Navajo code talkers took part in every
assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all
six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions and Marine parachute units, transmitting
messages by telephone and radio in their native language a code that the Japanese
never broke.

The idea to use Navajo for secure communications came from Philip Johnston, the son
of a missionary to the Navajos and one of the few non-Navajos who spoke their

61
language fluently. Johnston, reared on the Navajo reservation, was a World War I
veteran who knew of the military's search for a code that would withstand all attempts to
decipher it. He also knew that Native American languages notably Choctaw had been
used in World War I to encode messages.

Johnston believed Navajo answered the military requirement for an undecipherable

code because Navajo is an unwritten language of extreme complexity. Its syntax and
tonal qualities, not to mention dialects, make it unintelligible to anyone without extensive
exposure and training. It has no alphabet or symbols, and is spoken only on the Navajo
lands of the American Southwest. One estimate indicates that less than 30 non-
Navajos, none of them Japanese, could understand the language at the outbreak of
World War II.

Early in 1942, Johnston met with Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding
general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and his staff to convince them of the Navajo
language's value as code. Johnston staged tests under simulated combat conditions,
demonstrating that Navajos could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line English
message in 20 seconds. Machines of the time required 30 minutes to perform the same
job. Convinced, Vogel recommended to the Commandant of the Marine Corps that the
Marines recruit 200 Navajos.

In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp
Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They
developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all
code words had to be memorized during training.

Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit
deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers' primary job was to talk, transmitting
information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield
communications over telephones and radios. They also acted as messengers, and
performed general Marine duties.

Praise for their skill, speed and accuracy accrued throughout the war. At Iwo Jima,
Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, declared, "Were it not for the
Navajos, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima." Connor had six Navajo code
talkers working around the clock during the first two days of the battle. Those six sent
and received over 800 messages, all without error.

The Japanese, who were skilled code breakers, remained baffled by the Navajo
language. The Japanese chief of intelligence, Lieutenant General Seizo Arisue, said
that while they were able to decipher the codes used by the U.S. Army and Army Air
Corps, they never cracked the code used by the Marines. The Navajo code talkers
even stymied a Navajo soldier taken prisoner at Bataan. (About 20 Navajos served in
the U.S. Army in the Philippines.) The Navajo soldier, forced to listen to the jumbled
words of talker transmissions, said to a code talker after the war, "I never figured out
what you guys who got me into all that trouble were saying."

In 1942, there were about 50,000 Navajo tribe members. As of 1945, about 540
Navajos served as Marines. From 375 to 420 of those trained as code talkers; the rest
served in other capacities.
62
Navajo remained potentially valuable as code even after the war. For that reason, the
code talkers, whose skill and courage saved both American lives and military
engagements, only recently earned recognition from the Government and the public.

The Navajo Code Talker's Dictionary

When a Navajo code talker received a message, what he heard was a string of
seemingly unrelated Navajo words. The code talker first had to translate each Navajo
word into its English equivalent. Then he used only the first letter of the English
equivalent in spelling an English word. Thus, the Navajo words "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-
la-sana" (apple) and "tse-nill" (axe) all stood for the letter "a." One way to say the word
"Navy" in Navajo code would be "tsah (needle) wol-la-chee (ant) ah-keh-di- glini (victor)
tsah-ah-dzoh (yucca)."

Most letters had more than one Navajo word representing them. Not all words had to
be spelled out letter by letter. The developers of the original code assigned Navajo
words to represent about 450 frequently used military terms that did not exist in the
Navajo language. Several examples: "besh- lo" (iron fish) meant "submarine," "dah-he-
tih-hi" (hummingbird) meant "fighter plane" and "debeh-li-zine" (black street) meant
"squad."

Department of Defense Honors Navajo Veterans

Long unrecognized because of the continued value of their language as a security

classified code, the Navajo code talkers of World War II were honored for their
contributions to defense on Sept. 17, 1992, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Thirty-five code talkers, all veterans of the U.S. Marine Corps, attended the dedication
of the Navajo code talker exhibit. The exhibit includes a display of photographs,
equipment and the original code, along with an explanation of how the code worked.

Dedication ceremonies included speeches by the then-Deputy Secretary of Defense

Donald Atwood, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona and Navajo President Peterson
Zah. The Navajo veterans and their families traveled to the ceremony from their homes
on the Navajo Reservation, which includes parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The Navajo code talker exhibit is a regular stop on the Pentagon tour.
Prepared by the Navy & Marine Corps WWII Commemorative Committee
(http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-2.htm)

Social Security Numbers

The Social Security number (SSN) was created in 1936 for the sole purpose of tracking
the earnings histories of U.S. workers, for use in determining Social Security benefit
entitlement and computing benefit levels. Since then, use of the SSN has expanded
substantially. Today the SSN may be the most commonly used numbering system in
the United States.

63
Why didn't the Social Security Board just use an individual's name and address as the
identifier? The deficiency of such a scheme was already well known. A 1937
publication recounts, "A recent news account states that the Fred Smiths of New York
City have had so much trouble in being identified by their creditors, the courts, and even
their friends, that they have joined together in forming the ‘Fred Smiths, Incorporated,’ to
serve as a clearing house for their identification problems."

Today we take the 9-digit composition of the SSN as a given, but in 1935 and 1936
many other schemes were considered. In early November 1935, the Social Security
Board adopted an identifier composed of 3 alphabetic characters representing
geographic areas and 5 numeric characters. However, the Board made this decision
without consulting other federal agencies. The U.S. Employment Service (USES), the
Census Bureau, the Central Statistical Board, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics all
used numeric symbols without alphabetic characters since most standard statistical
machines used this scheme. With alphabetic symbols, these agencies, as well as many
private companies, would have had to buy new machines.

As a result of the June 1936 decision, the current SSN is composed of three parts:

 The first three digits are the area number (geographic region)
 The next two digits are the group number (assigned by state)
 The final four digits are the serial number

Deciding on Application Data

There was also considerable discussion in 1936 about the types of information to collect
as part of the registration. Generally, SSA collected the information needed to uniquely
identify and accurately report an individual's earnings covered under the new Social
Security program. Race was considered a necessary piece of information for actuarial
purposes because of differences in life expectancy among different races. However,
the Board decided to use the term "color" rather than race on the original Form SS-5
application for an SSN (McKinley and Frase 1970, 325–326).

The original 1936 version of the SS-5 requested the following information:

 Employee name
 Employee address
 Name of current employer
 Employer address
 Age of employee
 Date of birth
 Place of birth
 Sex
 Color
 U.S. Employment Service (USES) registration card number, if applicable
 Date and place of previously completed an SS-5, if applicable
 Completion date for current SS-5
 Signature (SSA 1990)

64
 (Puckett)

Universal Product Codes (UPC)

The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology (i.e., a specific type of
barcode) that is widely used in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, New
Zealand and in other countries for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common
form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each
trade item. Along with the related EAN barcode, the UPC is the barcode mainly used
for scanning of trade items at the point of sale.

Each UPC-A barcode consists of a scannable strip of black bars and white spaces,
above a sequence of 12 numerical digits. No letters, characters, or other content of any
kind may appear on a standard UPC-A barcode. The digits and bars maintain a one-to-
one correspondence - in other words, there is only one way to represent each 12-digit
number visually, and there is only one way to represent each visual barcode
numerically.

The scannable area of every UPC-A barcode follows the pattern SLLLLLLMRRRRRRE,
where the S (start), M (middle), and E (end) guard bars are represented exactly the
same on every UPC and the L (left) and R (right) sections collectively represent the 12
numerical digits that make each UPC unique. The first digit L indicates a particular
number system to be used by the following digits. The last digit R is an error detecting
check digit that allows some errors in scanning or manual entry to be detected. The
non-numerical identifiers, the guard bars, separate the two groups of six digits and
establish the timing.
Standard UPC-A Standard UPC-E*

1 23456 78999 9 234569

Wikimedia Commons

(Wikipedia, “Universal Product Code”)

65
 ZIP Codes
The United States Post Office Department (USPOD) implemented postal zones for
large cities in 1943. For example:

Mr. John Smith

3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis 16, Minnesota.

The "16" was the number of the postal zone within the city.

By the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1, 1963, non-
mandatory ZIP codes were announced for the entire country. Simultaneously with the
introduction of the ZIP code, two-letter state abbreviations were introduced. These are
generally written with both letters capitalized. The reason for the two-letter
abbreviations is that it was thought that a long city name coupled with a multi-letter state
abbreviation (e.g. Mass. for Massachusetts; Ca., Cal., or Calif. for California; Pa., Penn.,
or Penna. for Pennsylvania) would be too long for address labels used on magazines
when the ZIP code was added. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is
considered the father of the ZIP code; he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working
as a postal inspector. The first three digits of the ZIP code describe the sectional center
facility (SCF), which is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The
SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP codes. The mail
is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP code and sent to the corresponding
post offices in the early morning. In the cases of large cities, the last two digits
coincided with the older postal zone number, thus:

Mr. John Smith

3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55416

In 1967, these were made mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, and the
system was soon adopted generally. The United States Post Office used a cartoon
character, whom it called Mr. ZIP, to promote use of the ZIP code. He was often
depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODE" in the selvage of panes of stamps or
on labels contained in, or the covers of, booklet panes of stamps.

There are four types of ZIP codes:

 Unique (assigned to a single high-volume address such as government

agencies, universities, etc.),
 Post Office Box only (used only for PO Boxes at a given facility, not for any other
type of delivery),
 Military (used to route mail for the U.S. military) and
 Standard (all other ZIP codes).

66
ZIP codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states,
the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a
large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses
within that region. The main town in a region (if applicable) often gets the first ZIP
codes for that region; afterward, the numerical order often follows the alphabetical
order. Because ZIP codes are intended for efficient postal delivery, there are unusual
cases where a ZIP code crosses state boundaries, such as a military facility spanning
multiple states or remote areas of one state most easily serviced from an adjacent state.
For example ZIP code 42223 spans Christian, KY, and Montgomery, TN, and ZIP code
97635 spans Lake, OR and Modoc, CA.

(Wikipedia, “Zip Code)

License Plates
Formats for license plate numbers, are usually alphanumeric, and are chosen to provide
enough unique serials for all motor vehicles a state would expect to register. For
example, less-populous states such as Delaware and Rhode Island are able to use
formats of 123456 and 123-456, respectively, while several populous states use seven-
character formats, including 1ABC234 in California, ABC-1234 in Texas, ABC-1234 in
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and
Arizona, 1A/B2345 in Maryland, A12-3456 in Illinois, and 1234ABC in Indiana.

In some states, information such as the month of expiration or the county of registration
is incorporated into the plate’s serial. The last number on a Massachusetts license
plate indicates the month the vehicle’s registration expires (for example, 1234 AB would
expire in April, the fourth month; 0 indicates October expirations; and X and Y were
used for November and December expirations, respectively, on commercial plates and
pre-1978 passenger plates). In Alabama, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and
Wyoming, a one- or two-digit number representing the county of issue begins a license
plate number. Standard-issue Idaho license plate numbers begin with a single-letter or
a number-letter code representing the county of issue. County codes have been based
on historical population figures, the county names in alphabetical order, or some
combination thereof.

Only three places in the United States use letters to designate a residence where a
vehicle was registered. In Hawaii, the license plates have a unique letter designation
based on the island counties that residents purchased or registered the vehicles from;
the first letter starting with A-G, J, N, P, or R-Z are issued to residents who live in the
City and County of Honolulu, while H is registered in Hawai‘i County, K is issued to
vehicles in Kaua‘i County and M for vehicles registered in Maui County. In the State of
Idaho the first one or two characters are used to designate the county of
residence/registration. For example all vehicles registered in Ada county start with 1A,
vehicles in Twin Falls County start with 2T and vehicles in Valley county start with V (as
there is only one county that starts with the letter V).

67
License plate numbers are usually assigned in ascending order, beginning with a
starting point such as AAA-001. Thus an observer familiar with the sequence can
determine roughly when the plate was issued. In a few cases, numbers have been
assigned in descending order. For example, when Virginia switched to seven
characters for its standard issue in 1993, numbers beginning with AAA-1000 were
already in use for extra-cost, optional-issue plates; therefore, the new standard license
plates were issued in descending order from ZZZ-9999. Virginia’s “400th Anniversary”
plate series, issued from 2003 until 2007, was numbered in ascending order from JAA-
1001, commemorating the colony at Jamestown.

(Wikipedia, “United States License Plate Designs and Serial Formats”)

Bank Codes
A Bank Code is a code assigned by a central bank, a bank supervisory body or a
Bankers Association in a country to all its licensed member banks or financial
institutions.

The American Bankers Association has used, since 1910, a 9-digit routing transit
number to identify American banks, which are used in the automated processing of
checks. The bank company is identified in the 5th to 8th digits (the 4 digits before the
last checksum digit). The company number assigned to a bank includes a regional
prefix indicating the metropolitan area and/or state.

(Wikipedia, “Bank Code”)

Checking accounts are known as "deposit" accounts opened with a bank or other
financial institution. A person takes the cash to a bank and deposits it into his or her
checking account. Afterward, the person is able to write checks to retailers and other
vendors that are paper representations of that money in exchange for goods and
services. This is done because carrying around large amounts of cash can be
dangerous. If cash gets stolen, it is not recoverable. Checking accounts put your
money under the protection of the bank and, in turn, the Federal Government.

The "routing numbers" on your check identify the financial institution with whom your
checking account is with. These are the first nine numbers on the bottom of your check
on the left side. The routing numbers are always nine digits and never more or less. A
checking account with Bank of America will have a different routing number than a
check with Wachovia, but all Bank of America checking accounts will always have the
same routing numbers. These are the only numbers on your check that will never
change.

The checking account numbers appear on the lower right side of your check.
Depending on the financial institution with which you have your checking account set up
at, this number could be a maximum of 17 characters. The checking account number is
assigned by your bank to help it identify your specific account within its system. The
number is randomly assigned, meaning the numbers themselves don’t have any

68
specific meaning; although some banks use the first few digits to identify the home
branch, or the location where the account was opened. No two accounts at the same
financial institution will have the same account number.
(Lilley)

Phone Numbers
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one
telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone
numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and
were given orally to a switchboard operator. As phone systems have grown and
interconnected to encompass the world, telephone numbers have become longer. In
addition to telephones, they now access other devices, such as computers and fax
machines.

The number contains the information necessary to identify uniquely the intended
endpoint for the telephone call. Each such endpoint must have a unique number within
the public switched telephone network. Most countries use fixed length numbers (for
normal lines at least) and therefore the number of endpoints determines the necessary
length of the telephone number. It is also possible for each subscriber to have a set of
shorter numbers for the endpoints most often used. These “shorthand” or “speed
calling” numbers are automatically translated to unique telephone numbers before the
call can be connected (such as 9-1-1).

Phone numbers were not strictly numeric until the mid-1960s. From the 1920s until
then, most urban areas had “exchanges” of two letters, followed by numbers, e.g.,
Edgewood, Ivanhoe. In the UK, exchanges in the major cities with Director installations
were represented by three letters followed by four numbers; the letters usually
represented the name of the exchange area, e.g., MAYfair, WATerloo, or something
memorable about the locality (e.g., POPesgrove — an area where Alexander Pope
once lived). This was considered easier to remember, although in London in the later
part of this period it required the memorization of 7 characters (roughly the same
number of characters as is usual for local calling in 2008). A word would represent the
first two digits to be dialed, for example “Twinbrook” for “89” ; “Bywater” for “29”.

In December 1930, New York City became the first city in the United States to adopt the
two-letter, five-number format. It remained alone in this respect until well after World
War II, when other municipalities across the country began to follow suit. From the
1920s through the 1950s, most larger American cities used the Bell System standard
format of two letters which began the exchange name followed by four numbers, as in
Dunkirk 0799.

In 1955, the Bell System attempted to standardize the process of naming exchanges by
issuing a “recommended list” of names to be used for the various number combinations.
In 1961, the New York Telephone Company introduced “selected-letter” exchanges, in
which the two letters did not mark the start of any particular name (example: LT 1-7777,
once the number of the main switchboard at ABC, and by 1965 all newly-connected

69
phone numbers nationwide consisted of numerals only. (Wichita Falls, Texas, had been
the first locality in the United States to implement the latter, having done so in 1958.)
Pre-existing numbers continued to be displayed the old way in many places well into the
1970s. For example Boushelle, a company outside Chicago, still uses Hudson3-2700 in
their commercials.

Because the pulses from a rotary dial (as used to operate switches in a Strowger
exchange) took time, having a phone number with lots of 8s, 9s, or 0s meant it took
longer to dial the number. The phone companies typically assigned such “high”
numbers to pay phones because they were rarely dialed to.

(Wikipedia, “Telephone Number”)

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Discussion questions:
1. How does the use of codes facilitate commerce and other aspects of everyday life?

2. Why do stores scan your receipt when you return an item?

3. How does the use of codes protect our identity?

4. How have codes been used throughout history?

5. How has the use of codes affected history?

6. How does cryptology relate to mathematics?

7. How do codes facilitate the collection of information?

8. With six digits on a license plate, and all letters of the alphabet (except O) and all
numerals available for use, how many possible combinations are there? How would
you go about figuring that out? Does it change the outcome if you do not allow a
repeated number/letter within the license plate?

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 Unit 4: Patterns in Nature, Art, & Mathematics
How is it possible that mathematics, a product of human thought that is independent of
experience, fits so excellently the objects of reality?
—Albert Einstein

Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot
know the other sciences or the things of the world.
—Roger Bacon

When it comes to the inherent secrets of the universe, nothing seen, spoken or heard comes
close to matching the accuracy, the power, the elegance, and the inescapable truth of the
mathematical.

Plato believed that all things grew from forms, simple 3-D geometry and immutable patterns
that shape the backbone of reality. For too long his ideas were considered mystical, but the
physical importance of simple forms and numbers is now being confirmed by physicists and
biologists who have discovered essentially simple formulae applicable to complex matters,
such as the structure of DNA and the pattern of leaf growth in plants.

Prime Numbers
Number rules the universe.
—Pythagoras

A prime number is a positive integer that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. For
example, the only divisors of 11 are 1 and 11, making 11 a prime number. The number 1 is a
special case, and is considered to be neither prime nor composite. With 1 excluded, the next
smallest number divisible only by one and itself is 2. Since 2 is the only even prime, it is
sometimes excluded from the list of primes; however, it is a prime number (Gullenberg 77). If
a positive integer is not prime then it is called composite. The number 12 has several divisors
(1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12), which means that 12 is not prime; it is a composite number. In a sense,
prime numbers are the building blocks of all composite numbers.

Prime numbers are rather mysterious, and appear to be random, seeming to obey no other law
than that of chance; however, with the exception of 2 and 3, all primes are of the form
p = 6n ± 1, where n is a positive integer. For example, if n = 5, then the primes will be 29 and
31 (6 x 5 + 1 = 31 and 6 x 5 – 1 = 29). Though every prime number (except 2 and 3) fits this
pattern, not every value for n will produce a prime number. So, although we can’t choose any
value n and produce a prime number, we can take any prime number and find the n that
produces it in this equation (Skinner 33).

Prime numbers can also be generated by the sieve of Eratosthenes (see picture on next
page). This sieve technique was developed by Eratosthenes (~275-194 BC).

74
1. Sequentially write down the integers from 1 to the highest number you wish to include in
the table.

2. Eliminate the number 1 (shown in red).

3. Eliminate all numbers divisible by 2 (shown here as green squares).

4. Find the smallest remaining number greater than 2; it is 3. Eliminate all numbers
greater than 3 that are divisible by 3 (shown here as blue squares).

5. Find the smallest remaining number greater than 3; it is 5. Eliminate all numbers
greater than 5 that are divisible by 5 (shown here as orange squares).

6. Continue until you have eliminated all numbers divisible by the highest number you are
interested in. The numbers remaining are primes.

This example only went as high as eliminating numbers divisible by 13.

http://www.murderousmaths.co.uk/books/MMoE/new%20200%20sieve.gif

75
Prime numbers actually exhibit stunning regularity, in a certain sense, and satisfy many
strange and wonderful properties. Primes play an important role commercially:

. . . programmers are constantly striving to devise prime factorization algorithms that

can generate the prime factors of any given integer. A fundamental theorem states that
any positive integer can be represented in exactly one way as a product of primes.
Many of the commercial banking and internet codes we use today depend upon the
difficulty of factorizing primes. If someone were able to devise a general method of
factoring primes, they would render the vast majority of encryption schemes in current
use easily breakable. The arithmetic of prime numbers is not just a Pythagorean
pastime, but serious business (Skinner 32).

If we make prime numbers the denominator in fractions, the expansions are as follows:

= 0.333333333333333 . . . (the same number repeating)

= 0.2 (nothing interesting here)

= 0.14257 14257 14257 . . . (the whole block of six numbers is repeating)

= 0.09 09 09 09 09 . . . (a block of two numbers repeating)

= 0.076923 076923 076923 . . . (another block of six numbers repeating)

If we take just the 7ths, we can develop this even = 0.14257 14257 14257 . . .
further. You see the same group of six digits
repeating endlessly but starting at a different point = 0.2857 14257 14257 . . .
each time. It is almost as if 142857 was a sort of = 0.42857 14257 14257 . . .
“signature” of the prime number 7. Other signatures
can be developed for other primes. = 0.57 14257 14257 . . .

Peter Plitcha’s prime number circle shows

the regular irregularity of prime numbers.

Peter Plichta is a scholar in the

areas of logic and number theory.
He is also a representative of the
Pythagoreer, a world view which reaches
to understand nature
purely from the relationship of
natural numbers.

(Skinner 32)

76
 The Fibonacci Sequence
God created everything by number, weight and measure.
—Sir Isaac Newton

Leonardo Pisano Bigollo, known as Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician that some
consider the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages. He is best known to
the world for the spreading of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe, and for a number
sequence named after him. He did not discover the sequence, but he did use it as an example
in his publication, Liber Abaci (Book of Calculation.)

In the Fibonacci sequence, each number is the sum of the previous two numbers in the
sequence:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, . . .

There seems to be a visually pleasing quality to these numbers and their relationship to each
other that has appealed to humanity’s sense of beauty since the beginning of recorded history:
Either Fibonacci numbers and ratios have had a curious influence on art and architecture for
many centuries, or they unintentionally appear due to their natural appeal. Even today, there
is evidence of the appeal these numbers, such as 3-by-5- and 5-by-8-inch index cards and
booklets. These proportions are found in cabinets, posters, mirrors, light switch plates, playing
cards, writing pads, windows, postcards, calculators, credit cards, wide-screen televisions,
cars, and more.

Another interesting pattern: pick a number in the sequence, and divide it by the one that
precedes it.

8 ÷ 5 = 1.6 13 ÷ 8 = 1.625 21 ÷ 13 = 1.6153 . . . 55 ÷ 34 = 1.6176 . . .

144 ÷ 89 = 1.6179 . . . now let’s jump to 4181 ÷ 2584 = 1.618034 . . .

The higher the values of the two numbers get, the closer we get to a number we call the
Golden Ratio.

The Golden Ratio

The knowledge of which geometry aims is the knowledge of the eternal.
—Plato

Plato believed that God was the Supreme Geometer. Geometry introduced the concept of
ideal forms existing outside the physical world. It opened the door to forms and ratios so
beautiful that they seemed to offer a look into the mind of God. The Greek mathematician,
Pythagoras and his followers formed a religious brotherhood that exalted the triangle,
discovering something they called a golden ratio. Many great thinkers of the Renaissance
were fascinated by this most satisfying of geometric relationships and by the fact that they
were able to find it everywhere in art and nature (Lacayo 12).

77
Take a look at the rectangle below to the right. In mathematics and the arts, two quantities,
a & b, are in the golden ratio (also called the golden proportion and the golden section) if the
ratio of a+b to a equals a to b . When a rectangle’s two sides are in the golden ratio, it is
called a golden rectangle. The figures below illustrate the geometric relationship.

Images from Wikimedia Commons

Expressed algebraically: = which is represented by the Greek letter phi ( ).

√
Its numerical value: = = 1.6180339887 . . .

A distinctive feature of this rectangle is that when a square section is removed or split off, the
remainder is another golden rectangle; that is, the remaining rectangle has the same aspect
ratio as the first. The removal or splitting off of a square can be repeated infinitely, in which
case corresponding corners of the squares can be connected by a curve each quarter turn,
forming an infinite sequence of points; this is the golden spiral, the unique logarithmic spiral.
Below are a golden rectangle and another golden rectangle with the golden spiral
superimposed.

http://artinspired.pbworks.com/f/1250651688/Golden%20Rectangle.jpg Wikimedia Commons - Dicklyon

The golden spiral is often used interchangeably with the Fibonacci spiral; though they are not
entirely identical, they are almost identical, enough so that when placing one on top of the
other, they overlap, not quite completely, but almost completely. As we saw on the previous
page, the ratio of each consecutive pair of Fibonacci numbers approaches and gets closer and
closer to the golden ratio, but is not 100% equal.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral for a more detailed comparison via picture)

78
 A Fibonacci spiral approximates the golden spiral using quarter-
circle arcs inscribed in squares of integer Fibonacci-number
side like the one shown here, sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13.

Wikimedia Commons - Borb

The golden triangle (right) has both

base angles of 72 degrees, and it
contains the golden ratio in the
length of the side compared to the
lenth of its base. Like the golden
rectangle, it can be split by
bisecting one of the angles in the
base to form another golden
triangle, and so on forever.

http://i.stack.imgur.com/rRZaw.png
http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt669/student.folders/frietag.mark/homepage/goldenratio/image16.gif

The pentagram contains the golden ratio

as well. Each triangle formed by the points
of the star are in the 1 : 1.6 ratio –
length of base : length of side. The sides of those
triangles also form the 1 : 1.6 ratio with the sides of
the pentagon in which the star is inscribed. (Refer to
the animation of this ratio shown in Donald Duck in
Mathmagic Land; the excerpt is also on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eC_4L89EIw&safe=active )
http://www.neiu.edu/~bhdayton/golf/pentagram.gif

In a circle, the ratio is

The rectangular items previously
called the Golden Angle.
mentioned (playing cards, mirrors,
It is the smaller of two
etc.) are close approximations of
angles created when the
the golden ratio, and are also
lengths of two arcs that
referred to as golden rectangles. It
make up a circle are in the
strikes people as perfect, being
same proportion as the
neither too fat and stubby nor too
sides of a golden
long and skinny. It lies somewhere
rectangle:
between a square and a double-
Wikimedia - Dicklyon square. Many crosses in
graveyards display the golden ratio.

79
The golden proportion is often referred to as “the divine proportion”, and in fact was written
about in a three volume work with that title, De Divina Proportione in 1509 by Luca Pacioli.

Pascal’s Triangle
There are things which seem incredible to most men who have not studied Mathematics.
—Archimedes of Syracus (287-212 B. C.)

Pascal’s triangle is named after the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. It is a triangular
array of the binomial coefficients

The set of numbers that form the triangle were known before Pascal, but Pascal is the one
who developed many of its uses. He was also the first one to organize and publish all the
information together in his treatise, Traité du triangle arithmétique (1653). The numbers
originally developed through Greek and Hindu studies of the finite, binomial numbers, and
triangular and polygonal numbers.

The earliest unambiguous representations of a triangle of binomial coefficients occur in the

10th century in India. It was also discussed in Persia around that same time. It was known in
China in the early 11th century as well, and the first record of this triangle in Europe is in the
16th century.

The rows of the triangle are numbered conventionally, but with the starting row being row 0.
The number in row 0 is 1. Both numbers in row 1 are 1. After that, the next rows are
constructed as follows: for any given position in the pyramid, the number is obtained by
adding the two numbers above to the left and right; the sum is the new value. If either the
number to the right or left is not present (such as on the outside borders), substitute a zero in
its place.
Pascal’s Triangle

Adding the diagonals produces

the Fibonacci Sequence.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/images/eps-
gif/FibonacciShallowDiags_1000.gif
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PnLYRqe0k9g/Sw2oj6N4amI/AAAAAAAAAPo/
D3Bmlo_zdss/s320/Pascals+Triangle.gif

80
 The Magic 11s of Pascal’s Triangle

If a row is made into a single number by using each element as a digit of the number (carrying
over to the left when an element itself has more than one digit and when adding two digits and
getting more than 9), the number is equal to 11 to the nth power or 11n when n is the number of
the row the multi-digit number was taken from. This isn’t too complicated, until row 8.

Row Formula = Multi-Digit Actual Row “carrying over to the left

# Number when an element itself
has more than one digit”
0 110 = 1 1 The number 1 is a single digit.
1 111 = 11 1 1 All the numbers are single digits.
2 112 = 121 1 2 1 All the numbers are single digits.
3 113 = 1331 1 3 3 1 All the numbers are single digits.
4 114 = 14641 1 4 6 4 1 All the numbers are single digits.
5 115 = 161051 1 5 10 10 5 1 1, 5+1, 0+1, 0, 5, 1
(The last 3 digits are left as they are.)
6 116 = 1771561 1 6 15 20 15 6 1 1, 6+1, 5+2, 0+1, 5, 6, 1
(The last 3 digits are left as they are.)
7 117 = 19487171 1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1 1, 7+2, 1+3, 5+3, 5+2, 1, 7,
1
(The last 3 digits are left as they are.)
8 1 , 8 + 2 = 10, so carry 1 to the left,
8 11 = 214358881 1 8 28 56 70 56 28 8
making 1 + 1 = 2
1 2, 0, 8 + 5 = 13, carry 1 to the left,
making 0 + 1 = 1,
2, 1, 3, 6 + 7 = 13, carry 1, 3 + 1 = 4,
2, 1, 4, 3, because 0 + 5 has nothing
to be carried, so we leave 3 as is
here
2, 1, 4, 3, 5, 6 + 2 = 8
(The last 3 digits are left as they are.)

Another interesting feature of Pascal’s triangle is called the hockey stick pattern. If a diagonal
of numbers of any length is selected starting at any of the 1's bordering the sides of the triangle
and ending on any number inside the triangle on that diagonal, the sum of the numbers inside
the selection is equal to the number below the end of the selection that is not on the same
diagonal itself. Three such examples are shown below.

1 + 3 + 6 = 10

1 + 5 + 15 + 35 + 70 = 126

1 + 9 = 10

http://mathforum.org/mathimages/imgUpload/Pascalhockey.jpg

81
 Fractals
This, therefore, is Mathematics:
She reminds you of the invisible forms of the soul;
she gives life to her own discoveries;
she awakens the mind and purifies the intellect;
she brings to light our intrinsic ideas;
she abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth ...
—Diadochus Proclus (410-485)

Authorities have been in disagreement on how the concept of a fractal should be formally
defined. All agree that theoretically fractals are infinitely self-similar, iterated (a repeated
process), and detailed mathematical constructs. Many examples have been formulated and
studied in great depth. However, fractals are not limited to geometric patterns, but can also
describe processes in time. Fractal patterns with various degrees of self-similarity are found in
nature, art, law, and technology. They have been rendered or studied in images, structures
and sounds.

Fractals are typically self-similar patterns, where “self-similar” means they are "the same from
near as from far". This is not necessarily a new idea; people have pondered self-similarity in
many different ways: Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls) are self-similar, images in
parallel mirrors, a Shepard tone (in music) . . . Self-similarity is also depicted in art. Fractals
may be exactly the same at every scale, or, they may be nearly the same at different scales.
Fractals have a finite area, but an infinite perimeter.

For example, pictured below is the Mandelbrot set. It has an area that can easily be
measured. However, the perimeter is full of infinitely many small bends, twists, and curves; it
would be impossible to measure each one. As you zoom in to get a more accurate measure,
you find there are more curves and bends that you could not see until they were magnified.
You can magnify further, but the same problem will continue to occur. Thus, the perimeter is
infinite.

The Mandelbrot Set

Wikimedia Commons

82
The idea of fractals has mathematical roots that have been traced through a formal path of
published works. In the 17th century there were ideas of recursion. In the 19th century came
the concept of functions that were continuous but not differentiable (you will learn more about
that in a few years). Finally, the in the 20th century the word fractal was coined by the
mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975. Mandelbrot based it on the Latin frāctus meaning
"broken" or "fractured", and used it to extend the concept of theoretical fractional dimensions to
geometric patterns in nature. Subsequently, interest in fractals and computer-based modeling
in the 21st century has snowballed to epic proportions.

Most people connect the word "fractal" with something like art rather than a mathematical
conception. The mathematical concept is difficult to formally define even for mathematicians,
but with a little mathematical background, key features can be understood.

Along with self-similarity, key features of a fractal include that the pattern reproduced must be
detailed. There is no level of magnification in which its characteristic self-similarity and the
“curvature” of its perimeter would reach an end.

This also leads to understanding that fractals as mathematical equations are "nowhere
differentiable". All that really means is that fractals cannot be measured in traditional ways.
For example, in trying to find the length of a wavy non-fractal curve, one could find straight
segments, even particularly small segments, that placed together would reasonably be
considered to be following the curve. These small straight segments could be measured, and
their sum is the length of the curve. But in measuring a wavy fractal curve such as the Koch
Snowflake, one would never find a small enough straight segment to conform to the curve,
because the wavy pattern would always re-appear, in smaller and smaller sizes. This means
that the number of straight edges whose length we would sum is infinite, making the length of
the curve infinite. It sounds strange, but that is how fractals behave. This is better seen in a
computer animated representation of zooming in or out of a fractal figure.

The Koch Snowflake A variation of a Koch Snowflake:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rqLpd89GTcA/T5sD0Ujj1YI/AAAAAAAAAZo/2WOCcVINyiA/s400/snowCrystal4out.png

83
The Sierpinski triangle, also called the Sierpinski gasket or the Sierpinski Sieve, is a famous
fractal. It is named after the Polish mathematician Waclaw Sierpiński who described it in 1915.
However, similar patterns had already appeared in the 13th century Cosmati mosaics in the
cathedral of Anagni, Italy, and other places, such as in the nave of the Roman Basilica of
Santa Maria in Cosmedin. The Sierpinski triangle is one of the basic examples of self-similar
sets.

Below are shown the first five steps of constructing a Sierpinski triangle:

http://www.mathsisfun.com/images/sierpinski-triangle-evolution.gif

Tessellations
Symmetry, as wide or narrow as you may define its meaning, is one idea by which man
through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty, and perfection.
—Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl

A tessellation is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no
overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellations can be generalized to higher dimensions
(such as 3-dimensions).

Some special types of tessellations can be categorized:

 Regular – all tiles are of the same shape
 Semi-regular – tiles are of more than one shape
 Aperiodic - tiles used cannot form a repeating pattern.

The patterns formed by periodic (repeating) tilings can be categorized into 17 “wallpaper
groups”.

The term “tessellation” is used in computer graphics to describe the organization of information
needed to in order to give the appearance of realistic three-dimensional objects.

Shapes that tessellate include triangles, parallelograms, and hexagons. In the daily use of the
real world, a tessellation contains tiles that are made up of physical materials such as ceramic,
wood, paper, or fabric. They may be decorative patterns, or may be for functional use such as
providing durable and water-resistant pavement, floor or wall coverings. Tessellations are
found throughout history such as in Ancient Rome and in Islamic art such as in the decorative
tiling of the Alhambra Palace in Spain. The artwork M.C. Escher in the 20th century often
made use of tessellations for artistic effect. Quilts employ tessellations for decorative effect in
quilting. Tessellations are a class of patterns in nature, for example in hexagonal cells found in
honeycombs.

84
 Common tessellations you may have seen before:

Dmharvey
Mkill

Baelde Anomie

Images from Wikimedia Commons

Tessellatura in the Alhambra Palace, Spain

The Koch Snowflake as a
tessellation using two sizes:

Wikimedia Commons – David Eppstein

Wikimedia Commons - Gruban

85
 Music
It is harmony which restores unity to the contrasting parts and which moulds them into a
cosmos. Harmony is divine, it consists of numerical ratios. Whosoever acquires full
understanding of this number harmony, he becomes himself divine and immortal.
—B. L. van der Waerden

Music has no intentional foundation in modern mathematics. However, mathematics is the

basis of sound, and music exhibits a remarkable array of number properties. Nature is
amazingly mathematical. The Pythagoreans of ancient Greece are the first researchers known
to have investigated the expression of musical scales in terms of numerical ratios. The central
doctrine was that all nature consists of harmony arising out of numbers. From the time of Plato
(427 – 347 BC), harmony was considered a fundamental branch of physics, now known as
musical acoustics. Some composers such as Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven and Bartók, have
even incorporated the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers into their work. Beethoven’s
famous Fifth Symphony contains the golden proportion.

We hear sound, and therefore music, by sensing vibrations in the air. Pitch reflects the
vibration’s “speed” or frequency. Stringed instruments allow more than one note to be played
at a time, and notes that are played simultaneously on an instrument can sound harmonious
(pleasingly combined) or discordant (displeasingly combined). This is not dependent on your
musical preferences, but on an objective, arithmetic order that underlies vibrating strings and
all music.

If you were to play a note by plucking a string on a guitar, then pluck half the length of the
string by first pressing it on the fingerboard with a finger, you would hear a higher note on that
second pluck—its frequency would be double the first one. Though it is the same note, it is an
octave higher. “Octave” refers to the eight notes of a major scale; the keys comprising one
octave would be, for example starting with Middle C, then D, E, F, G, A, B. The C note that
follows begins a new octave. Shortening the same string at other points along the fingerboard
creates different notes. Each note is a fractional length, or ratio, of the original note.

Only whole number ratios produce harmonious results—the ratio of the vibrational frequency of
the musical octave is 2:1. In other words, if we call an octave 1 unit, and the “root note” is C
(also said “the key of C”), then the note made by that string of 1 unit in length is C. Half the
length of that string is also a C, but a full octave higher. Double the length of that string, it is a
C, but a full octave lower. If I took that string of 1 unit in length, and strummed it with a length
of string 4.2 or 3.7 times longer, the result would be dissonant. These whole-number ratios in
music form scales; scales are the building blocks of music. The ratios shown in the table
below each have a name, and the ones in bold form the doh-re-mi scale familiar to most of us,
in the key of C major. However, in any key (A major, B flat, E flat major, etc.), the ratios
remain constant (Skinner 22).

86
 SCALE INTERVALS AND RATIOS

NAME RATIO NOTE

Tonic 1:1 C
(first or root note)
Second 8:9 D
Minor Third 5:6 E flat
Major Third 4:5 E
Fourth 3:4 F
Fifth 2:3 G
Minor Sixth 5:8 A flat
Major Sixth 3:5 A
Minor Seventh 9:16 B flat Called the dominant seventh
Major Seventh 8:15 B
Octave 1:2 C The note one octave higher, double the
(8 notes above) frequency
Twelfth 1:3 G A fifth over the octave
Note: This table is here just as a point of interest, and is really more for people who are a little more trained in music.

The major sixth and minor sixth are two musical intervals considered by many to be the most
appealing to the ear. A major sixth consists of the note C vibrating at about 264 vibrations per
second, and an A note vibrating at about 440 vibrations per second. The ratio of these
vibrations then is 264:440, which reduces to 3:5. Three and five are sequential Fibonacci
numbers, and make up a Fibonacci ratio. The vibrations of any sixth interval (for those
educated in music) reduce to a similar ratio. It has been suggested that the Fibonacci
numbers are a part of a natural harmony that is pleasing not only to the eye but produces
sounds that are pleasing to the ear as well.

Fibonacci numbers can affect musical compositions in a variety of ways. The division of
musical time into periods whose lengths are in the same ratio to each other as the Fibonacci
ratios is perhaps the most important of these. The beginnings and endings of themes, moods,
textures and such are determined when a composer divides musical time into periods based
on that same proportion.

If you sprinkle powder over a tuned metal plate, then draw

a violin bow over its edge, the grains of the powder line up
in complex patters, as seen to the left. The frequencies of
these musical notes not only produce the sounds we
enjoy, but can create beautiful geometric forms.

(Skinner 23)

87
Fibonacci numbers are also used by some composers to aid in the development of a melody
line. Joseph Schillinger’s system of musical composition suggests that successive notes in a
melody be successive Fibonacci intervals between notes (see figure below). He believed that
the melody resulting from Fibonaccian jumps in the scale was just as natural as the growth
formation of seeds in a sunflower or leaves on a stem. He typically applied only the first few
numbers of the Fibonacci sequence, however, because they rapidly become too extreme.
Some modern composers do use the extreme numbers to achieve extreme and unusual
effects.

Examples of
Fibonacci intervals
between notes in
melodies. This is
only an illustration of
how notes might be
distributed in this
pattern; see if you
can spot similar
patterns like these in
actual sheet music.

(Garland 39)

It is unlikely that the average listener would be aware of Fibonacci numbers affecting the
melody, the rhythm, or the overall proportions. However, one might find the patterns formed in
the music intriguing; the experience might include a sense of balance or a feeling of “rightness”
in the musical events heard (Garland 40).

Below is a copy of Joseph Schillinger’s graph notation of the rondo of Beethoven's Pathetique,
which he did sometime between 1915 and 1943 (it’s a little difficult to make out all the details in
the graph, but you’ll get the general idea):

88
Below this image at the Archives of American Art is written the following:

The Rondo of Beethoven’s Pathetique as it appears in Schillinger’s graph notation.

Horizontally (from left to right) each square represents an eighth note. Vertically (up
and down) each square represents a semitone. The theme is 8 bars long and involves
64 eighth notes (64 t). The two figures at the right (15 t) refer to the primary axes of the
theme – the two notes that sound most frequently and for the longest duration (g and c).
In Schillinger’s theory of melody, the primary axis is a tonal center around which a
melody clusters. That this theme has two competing tonal centers is an element of
esthetic weakness. The heavy bar lines on the graph should make it easy for the
reader to follow the graph (Schillinger).

Note: This information is given just as a point of interest, and is really more for people who are a little more trained in music.

Fibonacci and phi (the name given to the numerical value of the golden ratio) relationships are
often found in the timing of musical compositions. Take, for instance, the climax of a song: it is
often found at the phi point of the song (roughly), as opposed to the middle or end of the song.
So, in a 32 bar song, this would occur in the 20th bar, 32:20 = 1.6 (phi).

Béla Bartók’s works have been analyzed by music theorist Erño Lendvaï. He believed that
Bartók’s music was based on two opposing systems, that of the golden ratio and the acoustic
scale. Shown below are Fibonacci intervals (counting in semitones) in Bartók's Sonata for Two
Pianos and Percussion, 3rd movement (1937). In Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion and
Celesta the xylophone
progression occurs at the
intervals 1:2:3:5:8:5:3:2:1.
These intervals rise up and
sink back down through the
first few Fibonacci numbers. Wikemedia – Hyacinth

89
French composer Erik Satie used the golden ratio in several of his pieces, including Sonneries
de la Rose+Croix. The golden ratio is also apparent in the organization of the sections in the
music of Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections in Water), from Images (1st series, 1905),
in which “the sequence of keys is marked out by the intervals 34, 21, 13 and 8, and the main
climax sits at the phi position” (Wikipedia, “Golden Ratio).

The musicologist Roy Howat has observed that the formal boundaries of Debussy’s La Mer
correspond exactly to the golden section. But while music professor of Trinity Collge in Dubin,
Simon Trezise, finds the intrinsic evidence "remarkable," he cautions that no written or
reported evidence suggests that Debussy consciously sought such proportions. Does it have
to be intentional? Can it be just a natural tendency to write music with these attributes?

These patterns and ratios can be found in the number of measures in a piece or movement,
the number of beats per measure, the pattern of notes and their ratios to each other, and even
the time signature. If you are adept at reading music,
1 Octave you might notice if the scales are all chromatic (all 13
notes of an octave), pentatonic (five black keys with
2 black keys + 3 black keys = 5
subsets of two and three) or diatonic (all white keys in an
octave), as well as where the buildup, climax and wind
down take place within the music, as discussed above.

Today, some current musicians have included the

8 white keys
13 keys in an octave
sequence in the lyrics, title and even via syllables within
a verse. The Pearl Musical Instrument Company
positions the air vents on its Masters Premium Drum
models based on the golden ratio, because this
arrangement improves bass response. Even the piano
contains the Fibonacci sequence within its keys (left).

Art
Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.
—Euripides (485-406, BC)

Mathematics is found throughout the art world, both past and present. There is some
disagreement, however, as to whether it was done by design.

Leonardo da Vinci's illustrations of polyhedra in De divina proportione (On the Divine

Proportion), and his views that some bodily proportions exhibit the golden ratio, have led some
scholars to speculate that he incorporated the golden ratio into his paintings. But the
suggestion that his Mona Lisa, for example, intentionally employs golden ratio proportions, is
not supported by anything in Leonardo's own writings. Nonetheless, some of da Vinci’s work
still seems to exhibit this proportion. Does the possible lack of intention eliminate its
presence? Could it be there simply because the proportion is naturally pleasing to the eye?

Influenced by the works of Matila Ghyka, Salvador Dalí explicitly used the golden ratio in his
masterpiece, The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The canvas itself is in the dimensions of a

90
golden rectangle. Dominating the composition, suspended above and behind Jesus, is a huge
dodecahedron, in such a perspective so that edges appear in the golden ratio to one another.

Though not found in every work of art, there are hundreds of artists whose work is done on
canvases which are golden rectangles. Writer and book designer Jan Tschichold stated that
many books produced between 1550 and 1770 are in the golden proportion to within half a
millimeter. She found medieval manuscripts whose text areas were in the golden proportion
as well (Wikipedia, “Jan Tschichold”).

Some canvases are golden rectangles, can be divided up into repeating golden rectangles, as
shown below. The canvas can also be turned and positioned in any direction (such as vertical
or flipped horizontally).

The Sacrament of the Last Supper – Dalí

The Mona Lisa – da Vinci Bathing at Asnieres 1884 – Seurat

Arranging a picture to be visually pleasing is not restricted to painting, but applies to

photography and even film as well. Directors are very careful in the way each shot is framed
and look for a specific balance that is most pleasing to the eye; they, too, use this golden
proportion to set up a scene before shooting.
91
The rule of thirds, also used in the film industry, is a simplified version of the golden proportion.
The frame is divided into three parts, both horizontally and vertically. The center of interest is
placed on one of the lines that divide the picture. The points where the lines cross are the
natural focal points.

Whether it’s the rule of thirds, or the golden proportion, mathematics play a part in making
composition within the frame attractive, in both film and photography. The following pictures
are examples. The pictures on the left illustrate the golden proportion, and the ones on the
right show application of the rule of thirds. Is one more “attractive” than the other? Do they
seem to be almost the same arrangement? Or, do you see them as being decidedly different?

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_USFMWhg2RDA/TVHD_tcj_EI/A
AAAAAAAAr4/C4fE_O1DeJI/s320/Sleeping-Beauty-Aurora-
disney-princess-17727532-791-327.jpg
http://media.cinemasquid.com/blu-ray/titles/barry-lyndon/fcc27301-f0c4-
4b73-8413-0a81f36a7d62/screenshot-0067622-I-824.jpg

http://www.wallpapersdesign.net/wallpapers/2013/05/Mount
http://www.digital-photography-bureau.com/images/goldensection.jpg ain-Climbing-485x728.jpg

Proportion is of no use if perspective is not correct. Plato was one of the first to discuss
problems with perspective. Geometry is responsible for the ideas used in establishing
perspective and the vanishing point.

Perspective machines (perspectographs) were invented to help an artist view a scene through
a wire guide while keeping his head unmoved at a fixed point. The artist draws the squares
formed by the grid on to the canvas and attempts to draw inside each square exactly what he
sees, no matter how much it might appear foreshortened and distorted.

Projective geometry grew out of these experiments. It dealt with the problems of perspective,
the point of projections, parallel converging lines, and the vanishing point. It also opened the

92
way for mapmakers to draw more convincing, usable maps of a round Earth projected onto flat
paper.

Foremost among these new rules in projective geometry was the idea of a vanishing point.
This was defined as the point where all the rays of light converge, or as we might express it
today, the picture’s focus.

The vanishing point lines focus to Christs’ head.

http://www.artistdaily.com/images/premiums/drawing-
perspective/linear-perspective.jpg .
http://2draw.net/wiki/Image:Lastsupper.jpg

Interior of a Church – Hendrick van Steenwyck

93
Escher – Playing with perspectives

94
95
 The idea of the golden spiral expressed in art

The Golden Stairs – Edward Burne Jones

Starry Starry Night – Van Gough

Pebble Mosaic, Gresgarth Hall Gardens – Lancaster, England

http://paperwhitegardendesign.co.uk/wp- http://indulgy.net/J4/eD/GB/f3842f6b6a7e4fcb4e738b35833a99cf.jpg
content/uploads/2011/01/P91203302.jpg

96
 Tessellation: is it art . . . ?

Circle Limit IV (Heaven & Hell) Flying Horse – M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher

. . . or is it the creation of a technically skilled craftsman?

Architecture
It is the glory of geometry that from so few principles, fetched from without, it is able to
accomplish so much.
—Sir Isaac Newton

Architects either intentionally or accidentally use specific mathematical proportions to shape

buildings.

In ancient Greece, the golden ratio may have been used to lay out many buildings. In Islamic
architecture, tessellations are very common.

Ancient architectures in Egypt and India involved principles and proportions in their planning
that rooted the buildings to the movements of the stars, the sun, and other heavenly bodies;
most commonly to the various constellations. Many seem to have specific mathematical
proportions including the golden ratio, though it is disputed whether or not the Egyptians had
such mathematic knowledge. The Great Pyramid of Giza is an example of Egyptian
architecture whose measurements are less than 1% off from the golden ratio. If they were not
specifically aware of the ratio, why is it so close? Is it possible that they chose proportions that
were pleasing to the eye, without specifically being aware of the mathematical properties of
their designs? Vaastu Shastra is the ancient Indian science of architecture and town planning
using a specific type mathematical drawings; these drawings were also spiritual symbols which
represent the universe, called mandalas. Complex calculations are used to arrive at the
dimensions of a building and its components. Some of these calculations were astrological,
while others were based on aesthetics such as rhythm.

Early builders may have come upon mathematical proportions by accident. Georges Ifrah
notes that simple "tricks" with string and stakes can be used to lay out geometric shapes, such
as ellipses and right angles.

97
The reason why existing buildings have universal appeal and are visually satisfying has been
answered by a newer study of mathematics called fractals: it is because they provide the
viewer with a sense of scale at different viewing distances. For example, in Hindu temples
such as the Virupaksha temple at Hampi, the parts and the whole have the same character.

In Renaissance architecture, symmetry and mathematical proportion were deliberately

emphasized, such as in the works of Andrea Palladio. During the Baroque period curved and
dramatically twisted shapes were used in varied contexts such as rooms, columns, staircases
and squares.

In the twentieth century, styles such as modern architecture and Deconstructivism (a look of
deliberate chaos) explored different geometries to achieve desired effects.

Earlier research into the Great Mosque of Kairouan was re-examined in 2004. The application
of the golden ratio was revealed as being consistent throughout the design. Ratios close to
the golden ratio in the overall proportion and dimensions of the prayer space, the court, and
the minaret were discovered.

Famous for his contributions to the modern international style, Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s
design philosophy was centered on systems of harmony and proportion. His faith that the
order of the universe was founded in mathematics was closely tied to the golden ratio and the
Fibonacci series, which he described as "rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their
relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They
resound in man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing
out of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages and the learned” (Wikipedia, “Golden
Ratio").

The golden ratio was used explicitly by Le Corbusier in his Modulor system for the scale of
architectural proportion. He did this as a continuation of the mathematics behind Leonardo da
Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" and the work of Leon Battista Alberti. Many great designers throughout
history have used the proportions of the human body to improve the appearance and function
of architecture. Additionally, Le Corbusier based his system on Fibonacci numbers, the double
unit, and human measurements. The suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions was
taken to an extreme: Le Corbusier sectioned his model human body's height at the navel with
the two sections in golden ratio, then subdivided those sections in golden ratio at the knees
and throat; he used these golden ratio proportions in the Modulor system. His Villa Stein, built
in 1927 in Garches, France, exemplified the Modulor system's application in the close
approximation of golden rectangles in the ground plan, elevation, and inner structure.

Mario Botta, a Swiss architect, also bases many of his designs on geometric figures. He
designed several private homes in Switzerland which are composed of squares and circles,
cubes and cylinders. The golden ratio is the proportion between the central section and the
side sections of the house he designed in Origlio.

It is also speculated that the golden ratio was used by the designers of the Naqsh-e Jahan
Square and the adjacent Lotfollah mosque in Iran.

98
What do you notice about the architecture in the pictures that follow? Do you see
proportionality, fractals, playing with lines and perspective? Can you think of other interesting
examples of architecture? None of these could have been constructed without mathematics,
though some may have needed more than others!
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
(Mario Botta)

Wikimedia Commons – Caroline Culler

Casino Municipale, Campione, Italy

(Mario Botta)

Wikimedia Commons – AdmCom SRL

99
 Villa Jeanneret-Perret, Switzerland
(Le Corbusier’s first independent project)
Villa Stein, Garches, France
(Le Corbusier)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OQvhdsto-
kk/T5VjOk3ZzvI/AAAAAAAAA4A/UfCyx4ygJcY/s320/Villa+S
tein+final.jpg
http://distinctbuild.ca/_images/le%20corbusier/le_corbusier_maison_blanche
_villa_jeanneret-perret.jpg

The Philips Pavilion – The World’s Fair

Brussels, 1958 (Le Corbusier)

http://s3.amazonaws.com/picable/2009/12/16/1540560_expo-58-philips-pavilion_620.jpg

100

Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
(deconstructivist)
Wikimedia Commons -jjron
Krzywy Dom, Poland
(Szotyńscy & Zaleski)
http://www.timuryn.ru/wp-content/uploads
/2012/07/Crooked_House_Szotynscy__Zaleski_3.jpg
Built in 2004. The design was inspired by the
fairytale illustrations and drawings of Jan
Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg.
101
Virupaksha Temple, India
(fractal-like)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2214/2355192446_da7f9273e3_o.jpg
La Pedrera, Barcelona, Spain
(Antoni Gaudí & Josep Maria Jujol)
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/26/63/6d/
26636d963d3e1f9b8e1cdae605b1fe93.jpg
Constructed during the years 1906-1912, it
was a controversial design at the time for the
bold forms of the undulating stone facade and
wrought iron decoration of the balconies and
windows. Gaudí conceived of this house as a
constant curve, both outside and inside,
incorporating multiple solutions of formal
geometry and elements of a naturalistic
quality.
 The Sheikh Lotfolla Mosque, Iran

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/parys/parys0909/parys090900013/5522589-sheikh-lotf-allah-mosque-in-esfahan--iran-summer-day.jpg

Fallingwater, Pennsylvania (Frank Lloyd Wright - 1935)

http://www.fallingwater.org/img/home_assets/FW_FALL_01.jpg

102
 Vatican Museum – Rome The Salvador Dali Museum – St. Petersburg,
Florida

Wikimedia Commons - Colin

Where is this?

http://loveisspeed.blogspot.com/2012/01/salvador-dali-
museum-of-st-petersburg.html

Helix Bridge, Singapore

http://narcotism.tumblr.com/post/2438621700/sizenote

Stained Glass

Wikimedia Commons –William Cho

http://persephonesunset.tumblr.com/post/10401032266

103
St. Basil’s Cathedral, Moscow, Russia La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
(Antoni Gaudí)

Wikimedia Commons – d.wine Photo © Rainer Walter Schmied/iStockPhoto.com

A ceiling in the Alhambra Palace, Spain

Wikimedia Commons – Liam987

104
 Notre Dame – Paris, France

(http://s0.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/notre-dame-paris-golden-ratio.jpg

The Taj Mahal – India

http://s0.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/taj-mahal-1.gif

105
 Nature
All the effects of nature are only mathematical results of a small number of immutable laws.
—Pierre-Simon Laplace

Although a German psychologist, Adolf Zeising had a great interest in mathematics and
philosophy. He noticed that the golden ratio is expressed in the arrangement of branches
along the stems of plants and in the veins of the leaves. These observations led him to extend
his research to the skeletons of animals and the patterns in the lay-out of their veins and
nerves. He began to take interest in the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry
of crystals. He even began to take notice of the use of proportion in artistic endeavors. He
theorized that the golden ratio was a rule of nature. Observing these same proportions being
exhibited in the human body, he felt that this apparent universal law "contained the ground-
principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and
art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions,
whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical; which finds its fullest
realization, however, in the human form" (Wikipedia, “Golden Ratio). In fact, the bone
structures of all creatures are similarly based on the golden ratio.

As far back as Pythagoras (~570-495 BC), the Greeks were aware that the golden ratio
appeared in nature more often than chance would dictate. However, it isn’t so much that
nature is following mathematics, or that trees, animals, or plants are intentionally trying to be
aesthetically pleasing to the eye; these numbers and proportions seem to indicate a need in
nature, and appear to be part of the fundamental efficiency in a natural growth process. How a
living organism goes about fulfilling its biological needs can be altered by environment,
catastrophe, mutation, and other factors. For this reason, we will often find that the ratios and
spirals are imperfect with respect to the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers. Nature isn’t
following mathematics; mathematics is being expressed by Nature.

Our faces, and even our ears, display this proportion:

http://mathamusement.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/05/nature_spiral2-
http://s0.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/ 219x300.jpg
face-new-golden-ratio-beauty-proportions.gif

These comparisons of sections of the body (on average) are in the golden proportion:

fingertip to elbow : wrist to elbow navel to top of head : shoulder line to top of head
shoulder line to top of head : head length navel to knee : knee to end of foot

106
 The human hand tends to grow in these
proportions. Using any unit of measure, the bone
of the fingertip is in a 2:3 proportion with the next
bone. That bone is in a 3:5 proportion with the
base finger bone. The base finger bone is in a 5:8
proportion with the bone in the hand.

http://www.eatonhand.com/hw/fibonacci1.jpg

Several researchers have proposed

connections between the golden ratio and
human DNA strand. For each full cycle of
its double helix spiral, the DNA spiral
measures 34 angstroms long by 21
angstroms wide (both Fibonacci numbers).
So, 34:21 = = 1.619 = (phi).

http://www.sacredgeometry.com.au/images/gallery/
dna%20side%20view%20copy.jpg

In 2010, it was reported that scientists have discovered that the golden ratio is present at the
atomic level in the magnetic resonance of spins in cobalt niobate crystals:
As the critical state was
approached the researchers
observed that the chain of atoms
behaved like a “magnetic guitar
string”. Radu added: “The tension
comes from the interaction
between spins causing them to
magnetically resonate. We found a
series of resonant modes. Close
to the critical field the two lowest
resonant frequencies approached
closely the golden ratio 1.618…”

He is convinced that this is no

Wikimedia Commons - Claudio Rocchini.
coincidence and it reflects a subtle
form of order present in the
quantum system (Wilton).
(Left) A visual representation: The two
smallest concentric rings of solid red dots
have their radii in the golden ratio as seen
experimentally for the two lowest
resonance frequencies of the magnetic
spins.

107
 A colony of ocean creatures called salps.

http://www.goldenmuseum.com/0602001.jpg http://www.ilovestickyrice.com/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2013/05/14-L-salp_5530-540x375.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/45f46db005facbd2231237 http://www.cymascope.com/cyma_research/
024e607ac2/tumblr_ml0ll2y9DW1qcdywio1_500.jpg biology/starfish72_pent.jpg

Looking straight down on a plant stem

from above, the leaves extend from the
stem in a spiral pattern. This pattern
can be represented by a fraction which
is the angle produced by two
consecutive leaves. For example, the
leaves of a poplar grow 3/8 of a rotation
apart; in a willow the angle is 5/13. The
numerator and denominator are
normally consecutive numbers in the
Fibonacci sequence. We have already
learned that the decimal equivalent of
these fractions approaches the golden
ratio.

Using this ratio allows each leaf

maximum access to the sun and rain.

(Skinner 10)

108
Sunflowers, pine cones, and sea shells contain great examples of Fibonacci’s numbers in
nature:

The seeds in the head of a sunflower form many curves. Three of the most common are
shown below. The number of curves formed in each of the three sets of spiraling curves are
Fibonacci numbers: 21, 34, & 55.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NYaJQllvyA0/THwHdcz-
http://momath.org/home/fibonacci-numbers-of-sunflower-seed-spirals/ HeI/AAAAAAAABx8/bHm1ttgOzAI/s320/sunflower.jpg

The number of spirals in a pinecone is in a pattern similar to the sunflower: going one direction,
it has 13 sets of curves, and the other has 8 sets of curves.

http://s0.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pine-cone-
fibonacci-spirals.gif http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~physics/PhysPhotOfWeek/
2011PPOW/20110225FibonacciPinecone/AnotatedPineConeSize450.jpg

109
 The pineapple grows and
forms three types of spirals;
these spirals are made up of
5, 8 and 13 scales.

http://katra2.edublogs.org/files/2012/12/mu_wsa_07_04_003-2epqa62.png

The nautilus shell approaches the Golden proportion, but it is not always exact.

http://letsgetvisualvisual.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/shell.jpg http://www.laputanlogic.com/images/2006/04/24-11B3J7CF000.gif

The number of flower petals also follows the Fibonacci series:

Number Type of flower

of petals
3 Lily, iris, trillium
5 Columbine, primrose, buttercup, wild rose,
larkspur
8 Delphinium, sanguinarias, cosmos
13 Cineraria, corn marigold
21 Chicory, black-eyed Susan
34 Plantain, pyrethrum
55 Aster novi-belgii
89 Michaelmas daisy

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 Storm patterns, ocean currents, and even galaxies often follow the golden spiral.

Galaxy Hurricane

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
http://www.fabulousfibonacci.com/portal/index.php? RcFsoj_Dmwg/UJBdD7vB6WI/AAAAAAAACjI/
option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=12 rcFD3D2Q3g0/s1600/Fibonacci+spiral+hurricane+Sandy.jpg

Sargasso Sea Funnel Cloud

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/portfolio/zane_egginton

http://soleansspb.ru/elements/type16

Tessellations in nature
The honeycomb of a beehive. Tortoise shell

http://www.anh-europe.org/files/images/Bee_honeycomb.jpg http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/266524

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 The Giant’s Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland

http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/meganhoopesmyers/images/virtual%20tour/tess.jpg

Snake skin Pineapple

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
Bxu2IbxX_W4/T1yHXCTYXXI/AAAAAAAABZU http://s166029.gridserver.com/wp-
/3b8OV4WX0UY/s1600/Snakeskin-Pattern03.png content/uploads/2013/02/tessellation-6.jpg

Many plants and trees are fractals. For example, a fern looks similar to itself as you zoom in
from the plant to a branch, to a leaf.
A bacteria colony

http://www.icftw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/fractal-bacteria-
http://classes.yale.edu/fractals/panorama/nature/ colony-300x194.jpg
natfracgallery/Gallery/RealFern.gif

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 Romanesco Broccoli (fractal) Romanesco Broccoli (up close)

http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/images/Scr2.jpg
Notice how up close it just continues to replicate its
http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/khb/BrocolliRom.jpg
overall appearance.

Frost patterns The human lungs

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C-Kj79aoegU/TteDGS7lAuI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/N- http://image1.masterfile.com/getImage/861-03346400em-Resin-cast-of-
_KI8yU0Nk/s640/Frost_Water_crystal_on_Mercury_20Feb2010_cu2.jpg the-human-lungs-and-bronchial-tree--The-airways-of-each-.jpg

Lightning Trees

http://www.wallpaperpin.com/xres/1366x768- http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/
touched-by-lightening-storm-desktop-free-wallpaper.jpg 3250591423_378ffe1792.jpg

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The coastline is a type of fractal; the coastlines of Ireland or Australia for instance, will retain
their fractal nature as you get closer and closer to them.

Victoria’s Shipwreck Coast, Australia

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9Gc http://wallpapers-diq.net/wallpapers/63/
TEi7DNofIHHokoKfgwl1kp2gzEyJrHBAiTCfe5BONtE_SCnB3tFQ Victorias_Shipwreck_Coast%2C_Australia.jpg

Aerial view of the Irish coastline

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/0000099605-
irelan103-004.jpg
http://www.fractal.org/Bewustzijns-Besturings-Model/Lands-fractal-
fringes_bestanden/coastline_180.jpeg

With me everything turns into mathematics.

—Rene Descartes

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Discussion questions:
1. What happens if you color only multiples of 3 (or another factor) on Pascal’s Triangle?

2. What did you notice about your Pascal’s Triangle in which you colored-by-number using
remainders?

3. How do cultures use symbols to identify themselves and how do they use these
patterns in art?

4. How do manufacturers use patterns to create and market products?

5. How would you use the Golden Ratio to market a product?

6. How has fractal geometry changed our everyday lives?

7. Is tessellation an art form?

8. Explain why geometry is important in architecture.

9. See first drawing on p. 94. How can an artist like Escher draw a picture that looks so
convincingly real on paper, but can’t possibly exist in reality? How is that done, or why
does it work on paper?

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 Glossary of Terms
Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure for doing calculations or accomplishing a
specific task.

Alphabet Cipher: The alphabet (or key) by which the cryptogram was enciphered

Angstrom: A unit of measure defined by the amount of space occupied by a single

nucleotide unit in DNA.

As: A coin used during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. First it
was made of bronze, then later it was made of copper.

Cardinals: Numbers that describe how many of something there are (ex: one, two,
three, four, five, etc.)

Cipher (or cypher): An algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-
defined steps that can be followed as a procedure

Ciphertext: The result of encryption performed on plain text

Circumscribed: A polygon is circumscribed about a circle if each side is touching the circle
at exactly one point.

Code: A method used to transform a message into an obscured form so it

cannot be understood

Code vs. Cipher Codes operate at the level of meaning; that is, words or phrases are
converted into something else. Ciphers work at the level of symbol,
individual letters, or small groups of letters, or even, in modern ciphers,
with individual bits.

Concentric: Having a common center, as in circle or spheres.

Cryptogram: A message in code or cipher, secret text (“crypt” for short)

Decipher: To convert a secret message into its plain text

Divination: The practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by

supernatural means.

Electron Spin
Resonance (ESR): a technique for investigating paramagnetic substances by subjecting them
to high-frequency radiation in a strong magnetic field. Changes in the spin
of unpaired electrons cause radiation to be absorbed at certain
frequencies.

Encipher: To convert plain text into a secret message

118
Etruscan: A civilization of ancient Italy existing from about 700 BC until its
assimilation into the Roman Republic in the late 4th century, BC.

Infinite Series: The sum of the terms of a sequence of numbers that continues
indefinitely. In the case of calculating pi, this would be a series of fractions
that get smaller and smaller; the addition of each sequential fraction brings
the number closer to the exact value of pi, but because pi is irrational, no
matter how close we get, we will never reach it.

Inscribed: A polygon that is inscribed in a circle is a polygon placed inside a circle so

that all the vertices of the polygon lie on the circle.

Mercalli Intensity
Scale: A seismic scale used to measure the intensity of an earthquake.

Minuend: A number from which another number is to be subtracted.

Monoalphabetic: Involving only one alphabet

Nomenclator: Mix of code and cipher

Ordinals: Numbers that describe the position of something in a list (ex: first, second,
third, fourth, fifth, etc.)

Paradox: A statement that seems to go against common sense but may still be
true, or a false statement that at first seems true. (ex: “I always lie.”)

Perspectograph: An instrument for obtaining the points and outlines of objects, so as to

represent them in a picture in their proper geometrical relations.

Plaintext: The crypogram in the clear, or normal, English text

Polyalphabetic: Uses more than one alphabet (i.e., the ciphertext equivalent keeps
changing)

Positional: In terms of a number system means that position—which column the digit
occupies—indicates the magnitude. For example, in our system, the
columns represent ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, etc.

Radix: The number of unique digits, including zero, that a positional numeral
system uses to represent numbers. A base two system has a radix of two,
a base five system has a radix of five, our base ten system has a radix of
ten, etc.

Radix Point: The symbol used in numerical representations to separate the integer part
of a number (to the left of the radix point) from its fractional part (to the
right of the radix point). In our system, the radix point is a small dot—a
“decimal point”. Some countries use a comma as their radix character.

119
Resonate: To reinforce oscillations (vibrations) because the natural frequency of the
device is the same as the frequency of the source.

Rondo: A form in music in which a principal theme (sometimes called the "refrain")
alternates with one or more contrasting themes, generally called
"episodes."

Semitone: Also called a half step or half tone; it is the smallest musical interval
commonly used in Western tonal music, and is considered the most
dissonant (unpleasant pairing of tones) when sounded harmonically.

Subtrahend: A number that is to be subtracted from a minuend.

Symbols: Signs that are neither letters nor figures

Steganography: The art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no
one, apart from the sender and intended recipient, suspects the
existence of the message, a form of security through obscurity. The
word steganography is of Greek origin and means "concealed writing".

Transfinite: Numbers that are larger than all finite numbers, but not necessarily
absolutely infinite. Coined by Georg Cantor in an effort to avoid some of
the implications of infinite with certain objects that were not finite.

120
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