Why learn about counting systems?
Why do historical counting systems still matter today?
When you check that balance in your bank account, or when you glance at the speedometer in your car, or even when you look for your child’s number on the back of jerseys during a pee wee football game, you are reading numerals in the Hindu-Arabic counting system. We are all familiar with those ten digits, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. What’s more, when we read a number like 352, we know that it stands for three groups of a hundred, five groups of ten, and two units. Our numerals are arranged according to a positional base 10 (or decimal) system… most of the time, anyway.

Learning Objectives
Numeration systems- Explore the counting and number system used by the Inca
- Become familiar with the evolution of our current counting method
- Convert between Hindu-Arabic and Roman Numerals
- Become familiar with the history of positional number systems
- Identify bases that have been used in number systems historically
- Convert numbers between bases other than 10
- Use two different methods for converting numbers between bases