The Indian counting system - confusing..? - Page 5

Originally posted by: debayon

Well, you're an Indian-American, right? So, this religion stuff shouldn't mean anything to you. I just laugh my head off when I see those foreigners wearing sharwanis and talking in Hindi at the Iskcon Center.

So religions like Hinduism should only be limited to India?

Originally posted by: debayon

Well, you're an Indian-American, right? So, this religion stuff shouldn't mean anything to you. I just laugh my head off when I see those foreigners wearing sharwanis and talking in Hindi at the Iskcon Center.

Correct me if I am wrong😳 You mean to say religion does not matter to Indian-Americans??
I have a Polish friend, who wears Sherwanis and also speaks Hindi and watches Hindi movies with us (of course with subtitles). Religion has nothing to do with anything. One does what they believe in and what makes them happy.
Edited by sunandshine - 14 years ago

Aajkal indians ke khilaaf koi saajish chali hai kya?
First - why they make corny jokes, now why is their counting system confusing? 😆

Originally posted by: Meena1

anyone else find the indian currency system a bit confusing.. i always thought a lakh was a million.. found it recently that its only a 100k.... and that a crore is infact a million..

Why is it like that..?  Why dont they just equate the lakhs to a million.. or just eliminate it altogether.. wouldn't it be easier to just count in thousands.. 100 thousand and stuff..

Aww Meena ji- that is so sad na ! 😆
There's nothing wrong with the indian system, nor with any other system - problem sirf tab aati hai jab log apne cousins ko maths sikhana start karte hain aur wo cousins doosre desh se hote hain. 😆

Originally posted by: clodpolish

Aajkal indians ke khilaaf koi saajish chali hai kya?
First - why they make corny jokes, now why is their counting system confusing? 😆..arre nahi.. i am Indian..😎..😆😆😆

Aww Meena ji- that is so sad na ! 😆..then why are you lauhging....😆😆😆
There's nothing wrong with the indian system, nor with any other system - problem sirf tab aati hai jab log apne cousins ko maths sikhana start karte hain aur wo cousins doosre desh se hote hain. 😆
..a little 7 year old telling me i dont know my numbers got to me....😆..

Originally posted by: Meena1

Aww Meena ji- that is so sad na ! 😆..then why are you lauhging....😆😆😆
i love comedy in tragedy--though this is no tragedy , only fulltoo comedy.😆
..a little 7 year old telling me i dont know my numbers got to me....😆
Hehe - i can understand that feeling. When my really small bro used to make such judgements and pass them onto me- uski dhulai karne ka mann hota tha. 😆
Anyways, thanks to your little cousin, we have an interesting debate out here.😆

I finally understood what a lakh is, now I won't have to rack my brains over it any longer. Thanks for the topic Meena! 😆

P.S. If you live in the US, everything's confusing once you step out. ;)

Originally posted by: *Woh Ajnabee*

P.S. If you live in the US, everything's confusing once you step out. ;)

Forget jet lag. When I go to India, I am more confused that everything is going the wrong way and almost kill myself. I was so lost that my friend would hold my hand to make me cross the road.

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

Forget jet lag. When I go to India, I am more confused that everything is going the wrong way and almost kill myself. I was so lost that my friend would hold my hand to make me cross the road.

 

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

<br><br>Forget jet lag. When I go to India, I am more confused that everything is going the wrong way and almost kill myself. I was so lost that my friend would hold my hand to make me cross the road. <br>

Really, IDK. Mera kya hoga India jaake.

Originally posted by: Meena1

Ahh..! one of those conspiracy theories.. 😆.. for  some reason i always had a hard time believing that.. 🤔.. just like when they say everyone was hindu in the olden days and they later converted to different religions.. 😆😆..

Actually Meena, debayon is correct, the positional base-10 numeral system we use today was invented by the Indians.  The Arabs learnt it from us, and eventually the Europeans learnt it from the Arabs, that's why it's mistakenly called the "Arabic numeral system", although the Arabs have always, and continue to refer to the numeral system as the "Hindu numerals"

Here's what Alberuni, a 10th century Persian Muslim scholar and polymath had to say.

"The Hindus do not use the letters of their alphabet for numerical notation, as we use the Arabic letters in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. As in different parts of India the letters have different shapes, the numeral signs, too, which are called a ? nka, differ. The numeral signs which we use are derived from the finest forms of the Hindu signs."

"In arithmetic all nations agree that all the orders of numbers (e.g. one, ten, hundred, thousand) stand in a
certain relation to the ten; that each order is the tenth part of the following and the tenfold of the preceding.
I have studied the names of the orders of the numbers in various languages with all kinds of people with
whom I have been in contact, and have found that no nation goes beyond the thousand. The Arabs, too,
stop with the thousand, which is certainly the most correct and the most natural thing to do. I have written
a separate treatise on this subject.

Those, however, who go beyond the thousand in their numeral system are the Hindus, at least in their arithmetical technical terms, which have been either freely invented or derived according to certain etymologies, whilst in others both methods are blended together. They extend the names of the orders of numbers until the 18th order for religions reasons, the mathematicians being assisted by the grammarians with all kinds of etymologies."
Edited by Emptiness - 14 years ago