The Weird Truth About Arabic Numerals

Hank unravels the fascinating yarn of how the world came to use so-called Arabic numerals -- from the scholarship of ancient Hindu mathematicians, to Muslim scientist Al-Khwarizmi, to the merchants of medieval Italy. Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/artist/52/SciShow -- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Sources for this episode: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Arabic_numerals.html http://www.ms.uky.edu/~carl/ma330/project2/al-khwa21.html http://books.google.com/books?id=SpyYKC-pNGoC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=1299+florence+law+arabic+numerals&source=bl&ots=eWpWq9worw&sig=IK8Rw1GHypvtQ4Cdi7CNu5b5Io8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=K8rxUb_8NMTIrQHYzYHoAg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=1299%20florence%20law%20arabic%20numerals&f=false http://www.wilbourhall.org/index.html#algebra