The Hindu-Arabic Numerals c12.152

c12.152

The explanation of the place value was a serious matter to most of the early writers. If they had been using an abacus constructed like the Russian chotü, and had placed this before all learners of the positional system, there would have been little trouble. But the medieval line-reckoning, where the lines stood for powers of 10 and the spaces for half of such powers, did not lend itself to this comparison. Accordingly we find such labored explanations as the following, from *The Crafte of Nombrynge*: