Encyclopedia > Greek numerals

  Article Content

Greek numerals

Greek numerals are a system of representing numbers using letters of the Greek alphabet.

The earliest system of numerals in Greek was acrophonic, operating much like Roman numerals with the following scheme: Ι = 1, Π = 5, Δ = 10, Η = 100, Χ = 1000, and Μ = 10000.

Starting in the 4th century BC, the acrophonic system was replaced with a quasi-decimal alphabetic system, sometimes called the Ionic numeral system. Each unit (1, 2, ..., 9) was assigned a separate letter, each tens (10, 20, ..., 90) a separate letter, and each hundreds (100, 200, ..., 900) a separate letter. This requires 27 letters, so the 24-letter Greek alphabet was extended by using three obsolete letters: digamma (ς) for 6, qoppa (ϙ) for 90, and sampi (ϡ) for 900. An acute sign (´) is used to distinguish numerals from letters.

The alphabetic system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values of the letters are added together to form the total. For example, 666 (the number of the beast) is represented as χξς´ (600 + 60 + 6).

Letter Value Letter Value Letter Value
α´ 1 ι´ 10 ρ´ 100
β´ 2 κ´ 20 σ´ 200
γ´ 3 λ´ 30 τ´ 300
δ´ 4 μ´ 40 υ´ 400
ε´ 5 ν´ 50 φ´ 500
ς´ 6 ξ´ 60 χ´ 600
ζ´ 7 ο´ 70 ψ´ 700
η´ 8 π´ 80 ω´ 800
θ´ 9 ϙ´ 90 ϡ´ 900

See also: Numeral system, Arabic numerals, Armenian numerals, Babylonian numerals, Chinese numerals, Greek numerals, Hebrew numerals, Indian numerals, Mayan numerals, Roman numerals.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Ocean Beach, New York

... Suffolk County, New York. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 138. Geography Ocean Beach is located at 40°38'52" North, 73°9'28" West ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 30 ms