solrizeFact check: Is Mamdani introducing Arabic numerals to New York schools?
quick_snailby using a term that some readers may find unfamiliar even though it refers to the numbers Americans already use
I dont understand this. When I was in Palestine, they definitely used different numerals.
Like, I guess they invented base 10? Or math? But the characters they use for numbers are absolutely different
so the numerals we used actually originate from India, first they got adopted by Arabic mathematicians who then brought them to Europe where people started mistakenly calling them “Arabic numerals”
Ok, well, this article is trying to call people dumb for not understanding a concept that is incredibly confusing to everyone
WesDym@quick_snail First, it's not "incredibly" confusing to anyone. It's fairly straightforward. Maybe it's confusing to some people, but it's not actually complicated in any way.
Second, no one actually needs to know the history, to not be confused by the term. The entire Western world has been calling these "Arabic numerals" for over a thousand years.
This is like not understanding that "Latin" languages are not actually the Latin that was spoken by Romans.