Transcriber: Hà Huy Nguyễn Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
Language differs between countries, cultures and communities.
How a sentence is structured and where emphasis is placed
can vary the meaning of a sentence dramatically.
Math, however, is universal, right?
In the 13th century,
a group of monks residing in (sic) Chateau Abbey, in France
developed my favorite form of representing number, Cistercian notation.
Start by creating a vertical line. From there split it into four segments.
The top right is for the ones top left for the tens,
bottom right for the hundreds and bottom left for the thousands.
Each number 1 to 9 is developed by one or multiple line segments
and placed in the corresponding place.
This form is very easy to learn and is simplistic
and allows you to develop both large and small numbers in a very small space.
It’s easy for everyday life but would be very hard to do operations in.
It is base 10 like Western Arabic numerals,
the most popular numerals used around the world today.
Base 10 means that each place is ten times larger or smaller than the last.
In 1994, a group of middle schoolers in Kaktovik, a town in Alaska,
developed Kaktovik numerals.
They mix the base 10 Western Arabic system
with the base 20 system of Eskimo-Aleut languages
found in Alaska and Northern Canada.
The students found it hard to connect the base 10 used in school
compared to the base 20 used in their homes.
So they use this system, which connects the two to bridge the gap.
It starts with a diagonal line down.
Two would be a diagonal line down, followed by a diagonal up.
This continues all the way to four.
Five is placed above and is a diagonal as well.
This continues all the way to 19 and for 20,
since it is base 20, you would start a new line.
Many people advocate for the use of the duodecimal system.
The duodecimal system is base 12.
They say that you should use a base 12
because it has way more factors than base 10.
Twelve has 6 factors compared to ten’s 4
the improvement would make no difference in most math,
but learning would be much easier.
For division,
1/3 and 1/4 would be made much easier.
A third in duodecimal is zero point four,
but in decimal is zero point three repeating.
A quarter would be 0.3 versus 0.25.
This allows for much easier understanding for people trying to learn.
For multiplication, the patterns are also much easier
as they repeat for many more terms that go into 12,
it would be easier to learn and a lot of people think it's much better
because it would allow you to learn more.
For the base 12 system, there are the regular 1 to 9 numerals.
And then you have “dek” and “el”. This is followed by “do”.
Twenty four would be “2do” and it continues from there.
The systems I've told you about are very different,
but you’ll also see differences within Western Arabic numerals.
In Europe, the full stop and the comma are switched compared to North America.
In some Asian cultures, you’ll also see the use of
the “Crore” and the “Lakh” for separating groups.
In these areas, the least significant group is a group of three
and every group thereafter is a group of two.
While these differences seem very minor
they show how we see numbers and represent them differently,
they can help show the different cultures in these areas
and help understand what uses they use for math.
I think that understanding this stuff can help people learn better.
And before Kaktovic numerals were used,
the students struggled a lot on examinations that had to be taken.
After they were introduced on these same examinations,
they did much better and there was a drastic improvement.
I think the ability to work in both base 10 and base 20 allowed for
the students to work in whichever way they are most comfortable in.
This would allow them to see problems differently
and allow them to work in ways that they understand better
which opens up many more avenues for thinking and learning.
I think that the perspective in which we see math
can change with knowing multiple bases.
Having many ways of approaching a problem can allow us to see
a new way of approaching it.
And being able to understand the uses of multiplication and division at a young age
can also help us to develop more ideas quicker,
increasing our education speed of learning Mathematics.
I think that more people should know about these bases
and where the cultures come from.
I believe it would really help some kids who struggle in mathematics
as they can see the patterns much more clearly
and much more simplistically.
I think that more people should learn these,
and I think it would make a great improvement to mathematics education.
That is why I say to you, learn a new base and become bilingual in mathematics.
It will only help. Thank you.
(Applause)