Computing

7

Chapter 2

Representation

of Numbers

In simple societies, tally sticks and clay tokens served adequately for thou-

sands of years to represent and record objects counted. As the number

of these objects increased, however, various methods appeared to group

the notches on sticks or bones or to designate tokens of higher orders in

order to facilitate the process of counting and recording. With the advent

of agriculture and the division of labor, increased population growth, and

the formation of centralized bureaucracies, simple tools like tally sticks

and clay tokens no longer suced.

It is believed that the earliest forms of written numbers evolv ...