From: jan sand <jansand@mindspring.com>
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: what are nubmers look like?
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 18:40:25 GMT

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001 13:55:34 +1000, "jofi" <jofi@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

        

Hi, there

how could we teach children to memorize number 1 to 10 ? I remembered some of them, but not all if you know, please tell me, thank you

  1. pencil one
  2. duckling two
  3. ear three
  4. ...
  5. ...

You might examine how the signs for numbers originated.

One was a single vertical stroke.

Two was two horizontal strokes and became "z" like when it was quickly written without removing the marking instrument from the tablet.

This happened with three as well.

Four was a circle quartered.

Five was the quartered circle with a horizontal stroke on top.

Six is a bit more difficult and seems to have been originally two horizontal strokes with the quartered circle underneath, but here it gets a bit dicey.

Seven seems to have evolved so far that the three horizontals have totally become vestigial and the circle has disappeared.

Eight is obviously the two quartered circles.

Nine might, at one time, have been an eight with an extra horizontal stroke, but it has obviously evolved.

Ten uses the zero which is an invention from India and rather recent as numbers go.

Jan Sand