TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

The decimal point is 150 years older than we thought

4 pointsby frasermarlowabout 1 year ago

2 comments

quuxplusoneabout 1 year ago
Submitted URL is a newsletter linking to a Nature blurb linking to the actual paper, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;j.hm.2024.01.001" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;j.hm.2024.01.001</a> &quot;Decimal fractional numeration and the decimal point in 15th-century Italy&quot; (Glen Van Brummelen, 2024). That paper&#x27;s abstract:<p>&quot;The earliest known appearance of the decimal point was in the interpolation column of a sine table in Christopher Clavius&#x27;s Astrolabium (1593) [...] We trace Clavius&#x27;s use of decimal fractional numeration and the decimal point back to the work of Giovanni Bianchini (1440s), whose decimal system was a distinguishing feature of his calculations in spherical astronomy and metrology.&quot;
评论 #39461697 未加载
frasermarlowabout 1 year ago
Not that I could have placed an age on the decimal point prior to reading this, mind you.