This question was sitting on my to do list for sometime. So, as I was reading a book on history of science, I came across of a paragraph where the author attempted to give a historical development about "how we got the symbols that we use today for the numbers 1 to 9?"
He started with 1
saying that humans would represent 1
with a stick on the ground which eventually has been drawn, let's say, in the sand, and reached us in the form we know it.
Next, 2
was represented with two horizontal sticks (ex: =) and, by drawing it, the fast hand connected the right end of the upper stick with the beginning of the left end of the lower stick, giving as the 2
that we know.
Something with 3
...3
parallel sticks...fast hand drawing transformed it into our 3
. And that's where the author stopped the story!
Does anyone know the rest of the story for the rest of the symbols, if there is one?
PS: Feel free to change the title of the post if you think that is not suggestive enough!