More than 5,000 years ago an Egyptian ruler recorded, perhaps with a bit of exaggeration, the capture of 120,000 prisoners, 400,000 oxen, and 1,422,000 goats. This event was inscribed on a ceremonial mace which now is in a museum in Oxford, England.
             The ancient Egyptians developed the art of counting to a high degree, but their system of numeration was very harsh. For example, the number 1,000 was symbolized by a picture of a lotus flower, and the number 2,000 was symbolized by a picture of two lotus flowers growing out of a bush. Although these symbols, called hieroglyphics, allowed the Egyptians to write large numbers, the numeration system, itself, was clumsy and awkward to work with. The number 999, for instance, required 27 individual marks.
             The Egyptian symbols were usually written from highest to lowest in value. This shows that the Egyptians numeration system did use place value. Each symbol could be repeated as many as nine times. Sometimes the numbers were written from right to left, left to right other times.
             There are ten symbols that were commonly used by the Egyptians to form a variety of different numbers. The vertical line or staff ( ) had a value of one so if you wanted to write the number 5 you would draw 5 staffs like so ( ). The heel bone ( ) had a value of 10 so in order to write the number 20 you would have to draw two of them side by side. The coiled rope ( ) represented the number 100 so in order to write a number greater than 100 such as 300 you would draw the symbol three times ( ).
             The lotus blossom ( ) carried a value of 1,000 so in order to write a number such as 2,000 you would draw the symbol twice ( ). The bent finger ( )symbolized the number 10,000 so if you had three of them side by side ( ) it would equal 30,000. Next, the tadpole ( )in which carries a value of 100,000 so to get the number of 200...