Writing Mayan Numbers

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Writing Mayan Numbers

• Created By Lindsay Schrader

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First, we have to learn and understand the three
basic units that the Mayan Math system uses.
These basic units each have their own design, and
represent the numbers 0, 1, and 5.
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Zero (0)
One (1)
Five (5)
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Now that we know what the three symbols to their
mathematical system are. We need to review some
of the rules to writing with their system. The
first rule deals with the ones units. You can
only have FOUR (4) dots in a row. Once you have
five units of something, you need to change the
dots into a bar which represents five.
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Lets count to 5 using the first rule.
Zero (0)
.
One (1)
..
Two (2)

Three (3)
.
___
Four (4)
Five (5)
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Now that we have used all three of the symbols,
we have to review the other rules to writing
Mayan numbers.

• First, once you get to five, you start adding the
  ones units directly on top of the bar. Once you
  have four dots (or ones symbols), you add another
  bar on top of the previous one.
• Secondly, you can only have three bars on top of
  each other. Meaning once you get to the number
  twenty, you need to use another formula which we
  will be going over shortly.

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Counting with Mayan Symbols 5 thru 19
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Once you get to the number 20, you need to use
another rule for writing numbers with the Mayan
symbols. Since you can NOT put more than 3 bars
on top of each other, you need to use a new
system of writing number.
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• If you want to write 20, you need to create two
  groupings of numbers.
• Mayan numbers are read top to bottom. So you
  will have to create a new place value. The new
  place value is to the twentieth place.
• To write 20, you will place one dot on top of a
  shell with a space between the two symbols. This
  dot represents one grouping of twenty and zero
  ones. When writing this down, you should leave
  space between the dot and the shell showing the
  two different place values and groupings.

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Counting With Mayan Numbers 20 thru 29
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You continue writing numbers using this method
until you reach 400. Once you reach the number
400 you will make another grouping of numbers,
just like you did when you reached 20.
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Counting with the Mayan number symbols continues
on in this fashion. But for this lesson you will
only have to be able to count to 100 using their
method.
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