Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
The decimal point is 150 years older than we thought (nature.com)
4 points by frasermarlow on Feb 21, 2024 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


Submitted URL is a newsletter linking to a Nature blurb linking to the actual paper, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hm.2024.01.001 "Decimal fractional numeration and the decimal point in 15th-century Italy" (Glen Van Brummelen, 2024). That paper's abstract:

"The earliest known appearance of the decimal point was in the interpolation column of a sine table in Christopher Clavius's Astrolabium (1593) [...] We trace Clavius'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."


Sorry, my bad. I grabbed the wrong link. Thanks for correcting.


Not that I could have placed an age on the decimal point prior to reading this, mind you.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: