Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Post 11 - Where do numbers come from?

In our novel, numbers come from a mine. Where do you think numbers come from? Be descriptive. Why do you think this?
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17 comments:

  1. Devon G.February 3, 2009 at 3:38 PM

    I think that the numbers (#)come from where minerals, rocks, and precious stones come from. They are made from HUGE, shiny boulders, which eventually break apart into the shape of very shiny whole #s, which if broken may turn into a fraction. E.g. There is a giant, lusterous boulder that will eventually break into the shapes of #. If one whole # is broken in half, the two #s become halves instead. If a # breaks into seven peices, they become sevenths, and so on. That concludes my explaination.
    Sincerely,
    Ozzy Osmonkey

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  2. Devon G.February 5, 2009 at 12:59 PM

    Oh wait, do you mean in real life, or in the book? Oops.
    Ozzy Osmonkey

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  3. Ben A.February 5, 2009 at 1:15 PM

    I think that numbers first came from ancient peoples fingers. They realized that there is an better way to keep track of things. Then the higher numbers were made out of the grass and the sand on a beach and then instead of knowing these numbers of how they look, like 1,99,446,755 would be a big pile of sand, they thought that it would be easier to make symbols for their #'s. That is where I think numbers came from.

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  4. Devon G.February 5, 2009 at 3:04 PM

    That anwsers my question.

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  5. Devon G.February 5, 2009 at 3:08 PM

    I think Ben has a point. I like the way he thought about the anwser and created a well detailed description about his opinion.
    Sincerely,
    Ozzy Osmonkey

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  6. BrandtFebruary 5, 2009 at 4:14 PM

    I think number ancestors were sticks and stones. They were things that could be found everywhere. Individual sticks had a value of one. 5 sticks might have been equal to a pebble (5). 2 pebbles were equal to a small stone (10). 10 stones were equal to a rock (100). But these numbers didn't work for ever because there could be confusion in judging sizes - meaning a pebble might look like a stone to someone and a stone might look like a rock. So figures were then created instead. Everyone could use the same figures so it wasn't confusing and they could be written in the sand or on cave walls or anywhere.

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  7. Devon G.February 5, 2009 at 4:18 PM

    I like Brandts idea, too.

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  8. BrandtFebruary 5, 2009 at 4:20 PM

    Devon, It is more fun to think your way about numbers.

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  9. Randy E.February 5, 2009 at 4:55 PM

    I think that numbers come from ovens. They would come from ovens because people problely take letters and cook them in to numbers. And then they could take numbers and cook them into fractions. For example you could cook a S into a 5 because an S and a 5 look alot alike. Or you could cook a B into a 3. You could cook a number into a fractions because fraction are part of a number. I think this would work very well and i bet there are people that cook letters and numbers that we don't no of.

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  10. Randy E.February 5, 2009 at 4:59 PM

    Ben your writing was very well writen. So would a grain of sand be 1.

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  11. Miss BailinFebruary 8, 2009 at 12:26 PM

    Dear Ozzy,

    Great summary of the novel's explanation of where numbers come from.

    Smiles, :)
    Miss Bailin

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  12. Miss BailinFebruary 8, 2009 at 12:30 PM

    Dear Ben,

    Numbers do historically come from ancient people as a way to develop measuring what they had, needed, during bartering (trading), etc. Look up some information on this. This relates with many ancient civilizations. Each group made a different/new contribution to math and provides us with the foundation of the number system we use today. Look it up in google. you will find some FASCINATING facts.

    Smiles, :)
    Miss Bailin

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  13. Miss BailinFebruary 8, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    Dear Ozzy & Brandt,

    I like how you are exchanging support with one another. You both provide our blog with interesting insights. There is always more than one way to answer a question. I like how you are tapping the creative and historical possibilities with this question. Keep it up!

    Smiles, :)
    Miss Bailin

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  14. Miss BailinFebruary 8, 2009 at 12:39 PM

    Dear Randy,

    I get a very vivid image based on your creative description of where numbers come from. I can see myself (because I am not a great chef by any means) baking a number and then having it break because I messed up the recipe and then we would have fractions. :)

    My brain is processing/pondering so many questions from your idea....
    ANYONE CAN ANSWER THESE
    What would burnt numbers be?
    Or poisonous numbers (E.g. if someone was allergic to it)?
    What would taste better: a whole number or a fraction?
    Which would be healthier?
    If someone was sick, what number would they eat to help them heal (E.g. chicken soup when you're sick with a cold or orange juice)
    What would drinks be (type of numbers)?

    Thank you for making me think.

    Smiles, :)
    Miss Bailin

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  15. Emily W.February 15, 2009 at 2:14 PM

    I think they come from a line in are brain. A line that goes up and down and side to side. It's one of the many scwigly lines in are brains and whenever we need a number it pops out of are heads and onto a piece of paper. The line is called a number line.

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  16. Haley M.February 19, 2009 at 4:37 PM

    I think numbers came from creative people that lived at about 400 A.D. I think this because Old English was the first period of English, and was from 449 A.D. until 1066 A.D. If they had letters and words, I think they would have numbers too.

    ***If letters were used before numbers, wouldn't letters be more important?***

    ~Haley

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  17. Miss BailinMarch 23, 2009 at 7:01 PM

    I love where your thinking is going class!

    Smiles, :)
    Miss Bailin

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