You are here
Mesopotamian Number System
Last updated at November 25, 2025 by Teachoo
Class 8 (Ganita Prakash & Old NCERT)
Chapter 3 Class 8 - A Story of Numbers (Ganita Prakash)
- Introduction
- The Mechanism of Counting
- Some Early Number Systems
- Roman Numerals
- Figure it out - Page 60, 61
- Egyptian Number System
- Variations on the Egyptian System and the Notion of Base
- Adding Egyptian Numerals
- Multiplying Egyptian Numerals
- Distributive Law – For Egyptian Numerals
- Abacus that Makes Use of the Decimal System
- Shortcomings of the Egyptian System
- Figure it out - Page 69
-
Mesopotamian Number System
- Mayan Number System
- Chinese Number System
- Hindu Number System
- Evolution of Ideas in Number Representation
- Figure it out - Page 80
Transcript
Mesopotamian Number System What is the Mesopotamian Number System? This system was developed around 4000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It is famous for being a Sexagesimal System, which means it is Base-60. Why Base 60? While we use Base-10 (counting by 10s), they counted by 60s. Legacy: We still use this system today for measuring Time (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour) and Angles (360 degrees in a circle). The Symbols They only used two basic symbols to write numbers up to 59: A vertical wedge (𒁹): Represents 1. A sideways wedge (𒌋): Represents 10. Writing 1 to 59 in Mesopotamian Number System It is additive. You just group the symbols together. Place Value System (Powers of 60)Just like our digits have different values based on where they sit (Ones, Tens, Hundreds), the Mesopotamian symbols changed value based on their position. But instead of multiplying by 10, each position multiplies by 60. The Place Value Columns: Rightmost Column: The number of 1s (600) Middle Column: The number of 60s (601) Left Column: The number of 3600s (602) Let’s now form a number using it This system was developed around 4000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).
