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John B's avatar

Arabic numbers actually originated in India.

Encyclopedia Britannica

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindu-Arabic-numerals

Hindu-Arabic numerals

Also known as: Arabic numerals

Hindu-Arabic numerals, set of 10 symbols—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0—that represent numbers in the decimal number system. They originated in India in the 6th or 7th century and were introduced to Europe through the writings of Middle Eastern mathematicians, especially al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi, about the 12th century. They represented a profound break with previous methods of counting, such as the abacus, and paved the way for the development of algebra.

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JGP's avatar

This is a great conversation with someone whose breadth of knowledge and sense of humour I admire greatly. In the course of the podcast you say that the phrase "diversity is our strength" is idiotic. You also point out the stupidity of hiring someone who doesn't know maths to be the Dean of the Maths department. In Canada, we have hired a prime minister who burps out "diversity is our strength" with some regularity. He is also utterly ignorant about subjects such as economics, business management and all things green. The way that he and his acolytes are wrecking the country really puts meat on the bones of your observations.

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