no historical likeness exists
476 – 550Kusumapura, India
Aryabhata
A digit's value depends on its place: the foundation of every later number system.
A short story
An Indian astronomer who, fifteen hundred years ago, wrote down the way numbers really fit together: a digit's value depends on its place. He used decimal place value to compute the size of the year, the speed of planets, the diameter of the Earth: work that needed numbers far larger than anyone in his world had names for.
In their own words
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands: each place ten times the place to its right.
Paraphrased: from Aryabhata's Āryabhaṭīya, 499 CE, on the writing of numbers.
The lab their idea turned into
Tower Lab
Each block sits in a place. Where it sits decides what it's worth.
Open Tower Lab →