If there are so many different languages and alphabets, does everyone use the same numbers? Do Asians, Africans & Iraqis with dramatically different languages from English use the same number system…1,2,3 and so on? If so, why?
There are a number of different systems of numerals; this article includes a chart showing several systems, and links at the bottom of the article to some other articles on numeration systems.
Originally, Hebrew did not use the Arabic numeral system. In Hebrew, numbers are represented by letters themselves. For example, aleph = 1 and yud = 10. yud-aleph equals 11.
However, in contemporary non-religious usage, many Hebrew speakers do use the Arabic numerals simply because it seems to have become the world standard.
Zev Steinhardt
Positional number systems (like the Arabic ones we use) also make it a lot easier to do arithmetic, since the columns line up. In Roman or Chinese numbers, for example, there is no such positionalness.
zev, is the Hebrew system also positional, or is it additive like the Roman system?
Additive. Although in most cases, it’s usually done thousands-hundreds-tens-ones, although it not be done so.
Zev Steinhardt
Friedo: Actually, in the Chinese system, there is such a method of position. For example: 34 is “3 10 4” or simply “3 4” depending on the writer’s choice. The thing that throws a lot of people just learning Chinese numerals at the beginning (if they’re not Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese (plus a few other countries’ populations), that is) is that there’s an “extra position” at 10,000. So 122,000 is “12 times 10,000 {plus} 2 times 1,000.”
Regarding the second part of the OP’s question: the very large number of societies that have adopted the Arabic numbering system have done so because (if one has an additive system, instead of a positional system), it is easier to simply import the existing positional system than to invent an entirely new character set–especially when there are outside pressures to use that system.
“Outside pressures,” of course, include such minor events as colonialism and world trade. Any shipment from Europe was going to have its manifest and bills of lading reckoned in Arabic numerals. Similarly, any shipment to Europe was going to be reckoned in Arabic numerals (especially if the port master was a European colonial officer). Since the Arabic system is fairly easy to learn and use, there was an impetus to simply use those same numbers back at the earliest point at which the material was crated or packaged, which provides encouragement to simply adopt the system throughout one’s culture.