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Polynesians May Have Invented Binary Math

Posted by samzenpus on from the original-number dept.

sciencehabit writes "How old is the binary number system? Perhaps far older than the invention of binary math in the West. The residents of a tiny Polynesian island may have been doing calculations in binary—a number system with only two digits—centuries before it was described by Gottfried Leibniz, the co-inventor of calculus, in 1703."

3 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. "Ethiopian" or "Egyprian" multiplication by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This uses binary math, though not quite explicitly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_multiplication

  2. The Chinese (of course) by nightcats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps an apocryphal story, but it goes that Leibniz was introduced to the I Ching (Yijing) oracle by a Catholic missionary friend who had gotten it translated into Latin (must have been strange). Anyway, the story goes that Leibniz instantly recognized the binary system in the 64 hexagrams and 8 trigrams. The I Ching is somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 yrs. old in the format and ordering it still has today.

    --
    Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
  3. Europeans used binary before Liebniz or Polynesia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Humans used binary long before Leibniz and long before the Polynesians mentioned in the article. For one example:

    2 tablespoons = 1 ounce
    2 ounces = 1 jack
    2 jacks = 1 gill
    2 gills = 1 cup
    2 cups = 1 pint
    2 pints = 1 quart
    2 quarts = 1 pottle
    2 pottles = 1 gallon
    2 gallons = 1 peck
    2 pecks = 1 kenning
    2 kennings = 1 bushel
    2 bushels = 1 strike
    2 strikes = 1 coomb
    2 coombs = 1 hogshead
    2 hogsheads = 1 butt