ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of arithmetic

Arithmetic is all about numbers and how we use them to do calculations. The history of arithmetic goes way back, even before people knew how to write! Early humans used their fingers and toes to count things, which is how we got the decimal system that we use today (that means using 10 digits, from 0 to 9).

As people became more advanced, they started developing more sophisticated ways to do arithmetic. In ancient Egypt, for example, they invented a system of hieroglyphic symbols to represent numbers. These symbols could be combined to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

The Greeks also contributed to the development of arithmetic. They invented a way of writing numbers using letters, which allowed them to work with much larger numbers than before. They also came up with the concept of infinity, which means that numbers can keep going on forever!

One of the most famous mathematicians of all time, Leonardo Fibonacci, lived in the Middle Ages. He came up with a sequence of numbers that is still used today (the Fibonacci sequence). He also introduced the concept of zero, which is extremely important in arithmetic.

Over time, people continued to invent new ways of doing arithmetic. In the 17th and 18th centuries, calculus was invented, which is a way of doing very complicated calculations. Today, we have calculators and computers that can do arithmetic much faster than any human ever could!
Related topics others have asked about: