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== History ==
[[File:Qinghuajian, Suan Biao.jpg|thumb|upright|The world's earliest decimal multiplication table was made from bamboo slips, dating from 305 BCE, during the [[Warring States]] period in China.]]
Many ancient cultures calculated with numerals based on ten, perhaps because two human hands have ten fingers.<ref>{{citation|first=Tobias|last=Dantzig|title=Number / The Language of Science |edition=4th |year=1954|publisher=The Free Press (Macmillan Publishing Co.) |isbn=0-02-906990-4|page=12}}</ref> Standardized weights used in the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Sindhu Valley civilization]] ({{circa|3300–1300 BCE}}) were based on the ratios: 1/20, 1/10, 1/5, 1/2, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500, while their standardized ruler – the ''
Some non-mathematical ancient texts such as the [[Vedas]], dating back to 1700–900 BCE make use of decimals and mathematical decimal fractions.<ref>(Atharva Veda 5.15, 1–11)</ref>
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=== History of decimal fractions ===
[[File:Rod fraction.jpg|thumb|right|150px|counting rod decimal fraction 1/7]]
Starting from the 2nd century
:{{lang|zh|寸}}
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Historians of Chinese science have speculated that the idea of decimal fractions may have been transmitted from China to the Middle East.<ref name=Lam>[[Lam Lay Yong]], "The Development of Hindu–Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic", ''Chinese Science'', 1996 p. 38, Kurt Vogel notation</ref>
[[Al-Khwarizmi|Al Khwarizmi]] introduced fractions to Islamic countries in the early 9th century CE, written with a numerator above and denominator below, without a horizontal bar. This form of fraction remained in use for centuries.<ref name=Lam/><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lay Yong | first1 = Lam | author-link = Lam Lay Yong | title = A Chinese Genesis, Rewriting the history of our numeral system | journal = Archive for History of Exact Sciences | volume = 38 | pages = 101–08 }}</ref>
Positional decimal fractions appear for the first time in a book by the Arab mathematician [[Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi]] written in the 10th century.<ref name=Berggren>{{cite book | first=J. Lennart | last=Berggren | title=The Mathematics of Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, India, and Islam: A Sourcebook | chapter=Mathematics in Medieval Islam |editor-first=Victor J.|editor-last=Katz|publisher=Princeton University Press | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-691-11485-9 | page=530 }}</ref> The Jewish mathematician [[Immanuel Bonfils]] used decimal fractions around 1350 but did not develop any notation to represent them.<ref>[[Solomon Gandz|Gandz, S.]]: The invention of the decimal fractions and the application of the exponential calculus by Immanuel Bonfils of Tarascon (c. 1350), Isis 25 (1936), 16–45.</ref> The Persian mathematician [[Jamshid al-Kashi|Jamshīd al-Kāshī]] used, and claimed to have discovered, decimal fractions in the 15th century.<ref name=Berggren />
<div style="float: right;">[[File:Stevin-decimal notation.svg]]</div>
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A straightforward decimal rank system with a word for each order (10 {{lang|zh|十}}, 100 {{lang|zh|百}}, 1000 {{lang|zh|千}}, 10,000 {{lang|zh|万}}), and in which 11 is expressed as ''ten-one'' and 23 as ''two-ten-three'', and 89,345 is expressed as 8 (ten thousands) {{lang|zh|万}} 9 (thousand) {{lang|zh|千}} 3 (hundred) {{lang|zh|百}} 4 (tens) {{lang|zh|十}} 5 is found in [[Chinese language|Chinese]], and in [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] with a few irregularities. [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], and [[Thai language|Thai]] have imported the Chinese decimal system. Many other languages with a decimal system have special words for the numbers between 10 and 20, and decades. For example, in English 11 is "eleven" not "ten-one" or "one-teen".
Incan languages such as [[
Some psychologists suggest irregularities of the English names of numerals may hinder children's counting ability.<ref>{{Cite journal| last=Azar| first=Beth| year=1999| title=English words may hinder math skills development| url=http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr99/english.html |journal=American Psychological Association Monitor| volume=30| issue=4 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071021015527/http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr99/english.html |archive-date = 2007-10-21}}</ref>
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