English
We Are the Numbers!
Hi there. How many toes do you have? How many wheels are on your bike? Before people even had names for us, they needed a way to keep track of things. They needed to know how many sheep were in their field or how many berries they had gathered. That’s where we come in. We are the idea of counting. Hello. We are the numbers. I'm One, and with me are my friends Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine. Together, we make up a special team that helps everyone in the world count, share, build, and understand their world. We are the secret code behind almost everything, from how tall you are to how many days are left until your birthday.
For a very, very long time, we didn't look the way we do now. Way back around 35,000 BCE, people would keep track of us by carving little lines, called notches, onto a piece of bone or wood. One notch for one day, two notches for two animals, and so on. Sometimes, they would use little piles of pebbles to count. Each tiny stone was one of us. Later, in a warm place called Sumer around 4,000 BCE, people had a clever idea. They began using special clay shapes, called tokens, to represent us. This helped them remember how much grain they had stored or how many goats they owned. It was a big step. As time went on, people in different places like ancient Egypt and Rome created their own special drawings for us. These drawings are called numerals. It felt like we were getting our very own superhero costumes so that everyone could recognize us and write us down in stories and on important buildings.
But for thousands of years, our team of nine felt incomplete. We were missing someone very important. Think about it. If you have four delicious cookies and you eat all four, how many cookies are left? People didn't have a way to write down 'none' or 'nothing.' It was a real puzzle. Then, in a country called India, around the 7th century CE, some very smart people known as mathematicians solved the puzzle. They had a brilliant idea. They invented a brand new teammate for us and gave a name and a symbol to the idea of 'nothing.' They called our new friend Zero. Zero is a true hero. It’s not just for showing that you have nothing left. It is also a very important placeholder. A placeholder is something that holds a spot, and Zero helps us turn a 1 into a 10, or a 2 into a 200. With Zero on our team, we were finally complete.
Today, you see our complete team everywhere you look. We are on the clock that tells you when it’s time for school. We are on the pages of your books, telling you which page you're on. You see us on price tags at the store and on the scoreboard at a sports game. We even help you level up in your video games. We help you measure the ingredients for a yummy cake, call your friends on the phone, and count down the seconds until a rocket launches into space. We are more than just symbols on a page; we are the building blocks for amazing ideas. We can’t wait to see all the wonderful things you’ll count, create, and discover with us.
