counting numbers was discovered or invented?
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invented. it’s a concept that was used extremely simply to keep count of objects. at first it was imaginative and abstract before things like tally marks were created to put it down visually.
Invented. There’s nothing that says that numbers have to be in groups of 10. We could have chosen 5. We could have chosen 100. We could have chosen any base number we want.
By this we have 1 – 10. We then have 11 to 20. And so on and so forth. Always groups of 10.
However, we could have invented a system of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20 and so on. In fact, there are other number systems that we use.
Computers use binary, for instance.
Numbers are an abstract system we use to keep track of concrete things.
We invented numbers, they are basically a way to communicate the amount of objects. Like If we see more than one lion we communicate that with a 2
Counting likely existed all the way back to early man and Neanderthal way back in 200,000 BC
Unga Bunga has two spears
Helga has 4 logs
Although there likely wasn’t strict words to convey this information. Probably just body language/violence. Eg, If Uggg took one of your bitches, am I right!?.
I doubt any mathematical prowess was assigned to the concept of having “more than one” of something until early Civilization around 6,000 BC. ( right around the time we start seeing architectural master-pieces of ancient Civilizations ).
It’s hard to know if this is sensationalised, but apparently there are still cultures with no lingo / conceptualisation of anything over the number 10…
(Probably not coincidentally matching the number of fingers we have)
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-people-who-cant-count-higher-than-five-ad80f09a8df3
Humans have a great ability to spot patterns, relationships and trends. I think numbering things probably developed hand in hand with our early linguistic development.
Numbers are invented. Counting was discovered, if you want to look at it that way. Counting is a basic concept. How many of a thing do you see? Say it’s three things. You naturally understand the concept of “3”, that what is before you is more than “one” or “two” of a discrete thing but less than “four”. That concept comes naturally. We invented numbers to standardize the abstract concept to make it a communicable concept. So that if I say there are “two” of something I mean more than “one” but less than “two”. Or that if I say there are “dos” of something that’s more than “uno” of something but less than “tres”. Counting is an inherent, and therefore discovered, concept. The language used to conceptualize and communicate that concept, numbers, is invented.
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