MAYAN MATMATICS

Zero!
Unlike the Roman system Mayans had a concept of zero. This was extremely helpful because zero is there as a place holder for the places

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Mayan numbers worked on a scale of 1-19 per place. Each dot on place 1 is worth 1, each bar is worth 5 and when it reaches 20 it goes up 1 place. In place 2

Every dot is worth 20 and every bar worth 100. And so on every place being an equation of (20^_) depending on place

This is a setup to add

If boxes are drawn around the "equation" it is easier to tell where the places are

You can make another box for clarity then begin adding.

First add the bottom. Since we are adding with zero, nothing changes.

Now onto the top. We take the 2 dots and add the 1 and get three, remember that in this place this equals 60 and not 3 as place 2 is x20

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Now weather you wanted to or not you now know how to count in Mayan. Have fun with that.

SOURCE

• http://mathforum.org/k12/mayan.math/mayan2.html
• http://www.hanksville.org/yucatan/mayamath.html