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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."

14 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. There were 10 types of ancient societies by Cryacin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Those who understood binary, and those who didn't.

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    1. Re:There were 10 types of ancient societies by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I thought they invented polynomials.

    2. Re:There were 10 types of ancient societies by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Funny

      They also used coconut shells as both bowls and for fuel. Polymorphism, if you will.

    3. Re:There were 10 types of ancient societies by Mateorabi · · Score: 5, Funny

      No there are 10 types of people:
      Those that understand binary
      Those that don't
      And those that don't realize the joke is base-3.

      --
      "You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8

  2. Re:"Discovered" would be more appropriate by PIBM · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sorry for you! If you had all of your fingers, you'd make it to 1023!

  3. Re:"Discovered" would be more appropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    GP probably uses signed integers.

  4. What's with this "may"? by newcastlejon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Either they did or they didn't.

    --
    If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  5. Poly? by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't that be "Binesians"?

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  6. Re:How is this news? by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was a Mayan tribe that went around naked. The men used base 21 and the women base 22

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  7. Binary is much older than Leibniz... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Leibniz freely admits that he took ideas from the I Ching: http://www.leibniz-translations.com/binary.htm

    What is amazing in this reckoning is that this arithmetic by 0 and 1 is found to contain the mystery of the lines of an ancient King and philosopher named Fuxi, who is believed to have lived more than 4000 years ago, and whom the Chinese regard as the founder of their empire and their sciences.2 There are several linear figures attributed to him, all of which come back to this arithmetic, but it is sufficient to give here the Figure of the Eight Cova, as it is called, which is said to be fundamental, and to join to them the explanation which is obvious, provided that one notices, firstly, that a whole line — means unity, or 1, and secondly, that a broken line -- means zero, or 0.

    The Chinese lost the meaning of the Cova or Lineations of Fuxi, perhaps more than a thousand years ago, and they have written commentaries on the subject in which they have sought I know not what far out meanings, so that their true explanation now has to come from Europeans. Here is how: It was scarcely more than two years ago that I sent to Reverend Father Bouvet,3 the celebrated French Jesuit who lives in Peking, my method of counting by 0 and 1, and nothing more was required to make him recognize that this was the key to the figures of Fuxi. Writing to me on 14 November 1701, he sent me this philosophical prince's grand figure, which goes up to 64, and leaves no further room to doubt the truth of our interpretation, such that it can be said that this Father has deciphered the enigma of Fuxi, with the help of what I had communicated to him. And as these figures are perhaps the most ancient monument of [GM VII, p227] science which exists in the world, this restitution of their meaning, after such a great interval of time, will seem all the more curious.

  8. 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)
  9. Re:"Discovered" would be more appropriate by mugnyte · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's called thumb's-complement - still in IEEE committee, but quite handy.

  10. Re:"Discovered" would be more appropriate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So you are always negative when good looking women are around..... Sorry for you.

  11. Binary - A Number System With Only Two Digits by TranquilVoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, decades of stories containing obscure acronyms deemed unworthy of explanation, now the editors decide binary needs to be defined for the Slashdot audience.