Base 20: Counting in Twenties
In short: Base 20 survives in French words and Maya calendars and may be linked to fingers and toes, though body-based counting turns out to vary from culture to culture.
A 1:16 short film in the series “From Fingers to Qubits”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.
Sources used in this film: East Tennessee State University (course notes by Robert Gardner, based on Howard Eves' An Introduction to the History of Mathematics), “Eves6-1-2.pdf”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Vigesimal number system | mathematics | Britannica”; Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Numerals and numeral systems | Examples & Symbols”; Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers Media SA), archived on PubMed Central by the US National Library of Medicine, “Fingers as a Tool for Counting – Naturally Fixed or Culturally Flexible?”; Springer Nature (Springer, Cham), chapter by Karenleigh A. Overmann in 'Cultural Number Systems' (2025), “Numbers in New Guinea: Body-Counting”; Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Living Maya Time), “The Calendar System | Living Maya Time”; Heliyon (journal article by Rojo-Garibaldi, Rangoni, González and Cartwright, 2021), hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine, “Non-power positional number representation systems, bijective numeration, and the Mesoamerican discovery of zero”; MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews, “Mayan mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics”; WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures), chapter by Bernard Comrie, “WALS Online - Chapter Numeral Bases”.
Sources used in this film
- East Tennessee State University (course notes by Robert Gardner, based on Howard Eves' An Introduction to the History of Mathematics) — Eves6-1-2.pdf · View →
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Vigesimal number system | mathematics | Britannica · View →
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Numerals and numeral systems | Examples & Symbols · View →
- Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers Media SA), archived on PubMed Central by the US National Library of Medicine — Fingers as a Tool for Counting – Naturally Fixed or Culturally Flexible? · View →
- Springer Nature (Springer, Cham), chapter by Karenleigh A. Overmann in 'Cultural Number Systems' (2025) — Numbers in New Guinea: Body-Counting · View →
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Living Maya Time) — The Calendar System | Living Maya Time · View →
- Heliyon (journal article by Rojo-Garibaldi, Rangoni, González and Cartwright, 2021), hosted on PubMed Central, US National Library of Medicine — Non-power positional number representation systems, bijective numeration, and the Mesoamerican discovery of zero · View →
- MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews — Mayan mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics · View →
- WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures), chapter by Bernard Comrie — WALS Online - Chapter Numeral Bases · View →
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: East Tennessee State University (course notes by Robert Gardner, based on Howard Eves' An Introduction to the History of: Eves6-1-2.pdf
- Also: Vigesimal number system | mathematics | Britannica
- Also: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Numerals and numeral systems | Examples & Symbols
- Also: Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers Media SA), archived on PubMed Central by the US National Library of Medicine: Fingers as a Tool for Counting – Naturally Fixed or Culturally Flexible?
- Also: Springer Nature (Springer, Cham); chapter by Karenleigh A. Overmann, Center for Cognitive Archaeology, University of Col: Numbers in New Guinea: Body-Counting
- Also: The Calendar System | Living Maya Time
- Also: Heliyon (journal article by Rojo-Garibaldi, Rangoni, González and Cartwright, 2021), hosted on PubMed Central, US Nation: Non-power positional number representation systems, bijective numeration, and the Mesoamerican discovery of zero
- Also: MacTutor History of Mathematics, University of St Andrews: Mayan mathematics - MacTutor History of Mathematics
- Also: WALS Online (World Atlas of Language Structures), chapter by Bernard Comrie: WALS Online - Chapter Numeral Bases
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