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PER - Le secret des mathématiques Incas
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| The secret of Inca mathematics finally understood |

Nicolino De Pasquale, an Italian engineering professor, has found the calculating system of the Incas, a mystery that has taken away the dream of generations of scientists. Since the discovery of America over 500 years ago, scholars from around the world have tried to solve in vain what was the greatest secret of the Inca Empire.

Nicolino De Pasquale, an Italian engineering professor, has found the calculating system of the Incas, a mystery that has taken away the dream of generations of scientists. Since the discovery of America over 500 years ago, scholars from around the world have tried to solve in vain what was the greatest secret of the Inca Empire.

It all started after the discovery of the "yupanas", the calculators of the Incas, stone tablets of 30 by 20 centimeters large, made of quadrants or boxes, in which were placed pebbles or corn seeds and served as abacus to the Incas.

For centuries, scientists attempted to study this complicated mathematical system, revealing several theories. De Pasquale, 54, passionate about Mathematics, acknowledged that he knew nothing about the Incas. Once someone gave him a book about mathematical enigmas in which there was a design of a yupana. During the Christmas holidays of 2000, De Pasquale began to study the complicated Inca hieroglyphics, and in just a few months solved the enigma and gave a solution to the mysterious system of calculation. The piece of news was reported to Florence, in order to be part of the exhibition “Peru, 3000 years of masterpieces”. De Pasquale then explained his theory with several examples.

 

A system of 40

According to him, the formula used by the Incas was not based on our decimal system, as it was believed up to now, but on a system based on 40.

The Incas would have counted through the yupana from the right to the left and starting from the last box. Then, the box in the top row would be worth 40 and the next 80 until infinity, and thus could calculate huge numbers. It is, in other words, a geometrical progression that recreates curiously the system used for processors or desktops. In addition, this elaborated mathematical calculation would have shown that the Incas did not use the number 0 and that a same number could be represented in various ways.

 
 

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