Why 1 is “one” and 2 is “two”
The numbers we all use (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) are known as “Arabic” numbers to distinguish them from the ” Roman Numerals” (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc). Actually the Arabs popularized these numbers but they were originally used by the early Phoenician traders
to count and keep track of their trading accounts. Have you ever though t why …….. 1 means “one”, and 2 means “two”? The roman
numerals are easy to understand but what was the logic behind the Phoenician numbers?
It’s all about angles !
It’s the number of angles. If one writes the numbers down (see below) on a piece of paper in their older forms, one quickly sees why. I have marked the angles with “o”s.
No 1 has one angle.
No 2 has two angles.
No 3 has three angles.
etc.
and “O” has no angles
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8 Comments
1.
Karen From 
(UNITED STATES)
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Windows XP on 06. May 2007 at 12:10 am
Thanks for the comment on my post about losing our passports. Oh my goodness, I would love to visit your country. We will have to save our money for a long time though. Isn’t it amazing how we are able to get to know people in other country’s? Maybe we can meet someday.
2.
hem acharya From 
(INDIA)
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Windows XP on 06. May 2007 at 9:22 am
sure karen.. we can meet someday..
3.
Duncan Hill From 
(UNITED KINGDOM)
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Windows XP on 05. March 2010 at 3:56 am
Nice hoax. But old. My father told me this in the late 80s, before the world wide web. I presume he was, in turn, told this as a boy.
But, of course, I know now it’s just all a form of “folk etymology”.
4.
Page R. Turner From 
(UNITED STATES)
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wow great article
5.
herbalife izmir 94.121.239.118 not found
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Good website.i love this post.Thank you..
6.
ek gelir 94.121.239.118 not found
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very good ..
7.
herbalife iş paketi 94.121.239.118 not found
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Thnak You Admin Nice Post
8.
James Nyari From 
(UNITED KINGDOM)
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Mac OS X on 13. September 2011 at 4:16 pm
Interesting article!
I really haven’t thought of it that way, but now that you pointed it out, it makes a whole lot of sense.
The symbols representing our numerical system do have angles that increases as their value increase.
A great food for thought!