What year did the Mayan calendar go until?
2012
What is a quipu?
The Incan system for recording numbers; consists of knotted strings
Count to 10 in a non-English language of your choice.
We'll take your word for it...
What number did the Chinese numeral system lack?
Zero
What aspects of modern-day time come from Babylon?
The 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, and 24-hour day
What base did the Mayan number system use?
Base 20
What is a quipucamayoc?
A keeper of the quipus; they kept official records of the Incas using quipus
What ancient civilization used short, straight bamboo rods to represent the numbers 1-9?
The proof of what theorem was found in an ancient Chinese manuscript that predates the better-know Greek version?
The Pythagorean Theorem
Base 60
How did the Mayan overall concept of time differ from our own?
The Mayans thought of time as circular, whereas we think of time as linear
How would the number 238 be represented on a quipu?
2 knots close together, and then a gap, then 3 knots, then a gap, then 8 knots
What was the first ancient civilization to use a numeral for zero?
The Maya
The first known magic squares came from China. What is a magic square?
An nxn grid of numbers where each number, 1 through n*n, is written exactly once, and each one of the columns, rows, and diagonals adds up to the same number.
What did the Babylonians use to write and record their numerals?
Cunieform tablets
What three symbols did written Mayan numerals use?
A dot (one), a line (five) and a shell (zero).
What is a yupana?
The counting board that the Incas used; like the Incan version of an abacus
The Babylonians had no symbol for zero. When writing numerals where we would use a zero as a placeholder, what would they do instead?
Leave a bigger gap
What device, first used in China around 1200, is still used by some shopkeepers today?
The abacus
The roots of what now-universal area of math come from Babylon?
Algebra
The Mayans calculated the exact length of a year in days. In decimal places, how accurate was their measurement?
Three - they calculated the year to be 365.242 days (compared to the modern value of 264.242198)
What impressive feat were the quipumayocs said to be able to accomplish using only quipus?
Count every person in the Incan empire and bring an accurate list back to the king
Where did the numerals we use - 1,2,3,4... - originate?
India (around the 6th or 7th century)
What ancient Chinese manuscript has the same position in Chinese mathematics as Euclid's Elements does in Western mathematics?
Chiu Chang Suan Shu (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Arts)
How did the Babylonians divide numbers? (Hint: they didn't have an algorithm like long division)
They thought about something like a/b as a*(1/b), and so they calculated lists of reciprocals and just used multiplication.