NOTATION. 
of the notation of the Greeks: it will, however, be intereft- 
ing to many of our readers to have a flight fketch of their 
arithmetical operations; we fhall, therefore, before we con- 
clude this article, enter upon the fubjeét, and fhall explain 
a little more at large the nature of their notation. 
The charaters employed by the Greeks were principally 
derived from their alphabet, and confidering the number of 
them, their arithmetic was managed with confiderable faci- 
lity, though it muft be acknowledged that it fell very fhort 
of that fimplicity which is fo ftrongly charatteriftic of the 
modern method. 
ft 
rene digits I, 25 35 45 52 6, 7, 8, Qs» 
h ¢ 
eile a By 3, és G Q, ny 9. 
To reprefent 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 
they ufed 4, x, Ay wy » & 0 wy, | 
To exe 
prefs 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, goo, 
they 
nase | fo a» T; Uy a) Xs L; Ws 7). 
ufe o 
Bat for the thoufands, roo0, 2000, &c. inftead of any dif- 
tin& charafters, they employed for this purpofe 
gs Bs Qs f < Gs my 95 
that is, they had recourfe again to their charaéters for the 
fimple units, with this difference only, that, in order to dif- 
tinguifh them from the former, they placed a {mall iota, or 
dafh, below the letter. 
With thefe charaGers it is evident that the Greeks could 
s 
exprefs any number wnder 10,000, or a myriad; thu 
991 was reprefented by 7)4a 
9999 972)58 
7382 _ Crap 
8036 na 
6420 Gux 
4001 da 
And fo on for other numbers ; whence it is evident, that nei- 
ther the order nor the number of charaCters had any effect 
in fixing the value of any number intended to be expreffed ; 
for 4001 is expreffed by two characters, 6420 by three, and 
7382 by four. Alfo, the value of each of thofe expreffions 
is the fame, in whatever order they are placed ; thus, §72)46 is 
the fame as 72)598, or as 59672) ; and fo on for any other pof- 
fible combination ; but as regularity tended, ina great mea- 
fure, towards fimplicity, they always wrote the characters 
according to their value, as in the examples above. 
In order to exprefs any number of myriads, they made 
uf the letter M, placing above it the charaCter repre- 
fenting the number of myriads they intended to indicate. 
@ B ¥y 3 
Thus M, M, M, M, &c. 
reprefented 10,000, 20,000, 30,000; 40,000. 
ag drop 
thus alfo M expreffed 370,000, M = 4372000e, and 
enerally, the letter M placed beneath any number, had the 
ame effe& as our affixing four ciphers. ‘This is the notation 
%.Mv, @.Mv, y.Mu, 3. Mu, &c. 370,000 = af. Mv, and 
43720000 = Jro8 . Mu. 
Alfo 43728097 isexprefledby — }ro8. Mun4? 
and 99999999 by 972)%9 . Mug72)"g 
This notation, in fome meafure, refembles that which we 
employ for complex numbers, fuch as feet and inches, or 
pounds and fhillings. 
The fame authors, however, employed a ftill more fimple 
notation, by dropping the Mv, and fupplying its place with 
a point, thus, 
inftead of — $ro8. Muni4t, they wrote S08 w nok 
and for 97258 . Mu$72)56, they wrote §2)59. 67259; 
{tars from the earth, found it neceffary to reprefent a num- 
ber which, with our notation, would require 64 places of 
gures ; and in order to do this, he affumed the fquare my- 
riad, Or 100,000,000, as a new unit, and the numbers formed 
Ww 
: n; as for ex- 
ample, if he had wifhed to reprefent the circumference of a 
circle, whofe diameter was a myriad of the gth order, he 
would have written it thus : 
Gok. Prd. C7)AB. yuus. 
3. 1415. 9265. 3589. 7932. 3846. 
cf). Buxd. 
7950- 
Having thus given an idea of the Grecian notation for in- 
teger numbers, it remains to fay afew words on their method 
of reprefenting frations. A {mall dath fet on the right of a 
number, 
an 
Yo ies Bxey. yur. 
2643- 3832. 
2824. 
