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    Chinese Rod System

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    Miriam Solomon
    An ancient Chinese numbering system using bamboo rods was discovered at an archaeological site in Henan province in 1899. Small bamboo rods symbolized the numbers 1 to 9 and were arranged in columns to represent place value similar to our modern decimal system. Chinese rods were used for both calculations and spiritually, such as keeping track of populations and resources. They represented digits using vertical and horizontal rods and spaces for zero, demonstrating one of the earliest decimal place value systems.

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    Chinese Rod System

    Uploaded by

    Miriam Solomon
    12 views3 pages
    An ancient Chinese numbering system using bamboo rods was discovered at an archaeological site in Henan province in 1899. Small bamboo rods symbolized the numbers 1 to 9 and were arranged in columns to represent place value similar to our modern decimal system. Chinese rods were used for both calculations and spiritually, such as keeping track of populations and resources. They represented digits using vertical and horizontal rods and spaces for zero, demonstrating one of the earliest decimal place value systems.

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    Chinese Rod System (1)

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    An ancient Chinese numbering system using bamboo rods was discovered at an archaeological site in Henan province in 1899. Small bamboo rods symbolized the numbers 1 to 9 and were arranged in columns to represent place value similar to our modern decimal system. Chinese rods were used for both calculations and spiritually, such as keeping track of populations and resources. They represented digits using vertical and horizontal rods and spaces for zero, demonstrating one of the earliest decimal place value systems.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    12 views3 pages

    Chinese Rod System

    Uploaded by

    Miriam Solomon
    An ancient Chinese numbering system using bamboo rods was discovered at an archaeological site in Henan province in 1899. Small bamboo rods symbolized the numbers 1 to 9 and were arranged in columns to represent place value similar to our modern decimal system. Chinese rods were used for both calculations and spiritually, such as keeping track of populations and resources. They represented digits using vertical and horizontal rods and spaces for zero, demonstrating one of the earliest decimal place value systems.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    2023-02-11

    Miriam Solomon
    Chinese Rod System

    A significant discovery was made in 1899 at the ancient site in the Henan province village of

    Xiao dun. Hundreds of thousands of bones and tortoise shells with ancient Chinese writing

    were found. Small bamboo rods were used to symbolize the numbers 1 to 9 in the ancient

    Chinese numbering system, which dates back to at least the second century BCE (2500)!

    These rods were then set into organized columns to represent units, tens, hundreds,

    thousands, etc. As a result, it used a decimal place value system that is very similar to the

    one we currently use today in our daily lives! Chinese rods were not just used for

    calculations, but it was used spiritually. Numerals were important in China when keeping

    track of men lost in battle, prisoners taken, the number of animals killed on hunts, the number

    of days or months, etc. The first nine multiples of ten were represented by nine digits, which

    brought the total number of digits in this counting system up to nine. The power of ten digits

    were represented by horizontal rods( Hengs), while the numbers one through nine were

    represented by vertical rods(Zongs). This signifies that each neighboring number was

    vertical, whereas every other digit was horizontal. For example, the number 215 would be

    written as ||—|||||. A symbol wasn't made for the integer “0”, so a space was made to represent

    the number. These numerals symbolize integers and rational numbers. Usually, Chinese

    numerals were separated by color: red equals positive integers and black equals negative

    integers.
    When adding counting rods, two numbers are placed down, one number above the other.

    The digits added LEFT to RIGHT. Same rules apply for subtraction( except you take away the

    rods). For multiplication, Chinese rods were used to represent the digits of each number and

    then the intersections of those sticks were counted in a specific way in order to get the

    correct answer. Overall, Chinese rods help us understand and collaborate with decimal

    place numerals in our everyday lives such as money( from the bank or stores), temperature,

    weight, distance and many more!

    Rod System:

    References:

    1) turing12, and turing12. “Counting Rods.”3010tangents, 25 Oct. 2014,


    https://3010tangents.wordpress.com/tag/counting-rods/#:~:text=In%20China
    %2C%20around%20200%20BCE,first%20nine%20multiples%20of%2010.

    2)“Counting Rods.”Counting Rods - Academic Kids,


    https://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Counting_rods.

    3)“Chinese Numerals.”Maths History,


    https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Chinese_numerals/.

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