The decimal point is at least 150 years older than previously thought

Mathematicians discovered the first documented use of the decimal point to divide numbers, made in 1440 by an Italian astrologer: the invention was slow to catch on

Scientists have found that the decimal point is 150 years older than previously thought finding Italian notes from the 15th century showing the practice of separating numbers into tenths. This mathematical concept is simple and obvious today, but it did not always exist, making the lives of calculators much more difficult in ancient times.

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Some versions of decimal division have emerged throughout history, as in writings of mathematicians of Damascus, in the year 900 AD, or in the years 1200 AD, by Chinese scholars. A coherent system of decimal points, however, was consolidated only in 1593, with the German mathematician Cristóvão Clávio, or so it was thought.

The invention of the decimal point

Clavius ​​appears to have derived his decimal system from a predecessor, Giovanni Bianchini, a 15th-century Venetian merchant who published treatises on astronomy and astrology between 1441 and 1450. His work is at least 150 years older than Clavius’s and not could have gone unnoticed by mathematicalaccording to what scientist Glen Van Brummelen said Nature.

It was during a summer academic mathematics program taught to high school students that the researcher from Trinity West University, Canada, noticed the use of the decimal point in Bianchini’s treatises. It is worth remembering that, for English speakers, decimal places are indicated with a point (like 1.5, for example), while, in Portuguese, we use the comma (1.5).

The idea of ​​breaking numbers down into smaller parts is quite old, but most mathematicians before the Middle Ages used fractions. Astronomers used divisions, but not in the base ten system we know todaybut in base 60, created by dividing 360º circles into 60 minutes, then dividing into 60 seconds.

In certain periods, according to Van Brummelen, mathematicians used notations similar to the decimal system, but such ideals disappeared before they took hold. Seeking the first to use numerical notation is a daunting task, depending on what we consider valid as knowledge passed from one generation to the next and the persistence of a given system.

Discovering the history of the decimal point is easier and, perhaps, valid, as innovation continues today. Bianchini used it for the first time in the book “Tabulae primi mobilis B”, a work which deals with the calculation of stellar coordinates. As part of his merchant activity as administrator of the Este family, who reigned in Venice in his time, he calculated horoscopes and astrology.

It was in the tables of this work that the decimal point appeared, exactly as mathematicians use it – and we all use it – today. Although it took some time to come to fruition, Clávio eventually discovered the innovation, inspiring other authors up to John Napier, the inventor of the logarithm, who immortalized the decimal point in mathematics in the early 17th century.

Source: Mathematical history, Nature

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Source: Terra

Rose

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