| Math Logic |
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| Question : |
| What
is 'Sand Reckoner' ? |
Answer : |
| Archimedes wrote,
a short treatise in which he made an estimate of the number
of grains of sand in the world. This treatise is known as Sand
Reckoner. |
| In this work he hit upon two of the most powerful
pecularities which is part of the modern number script. He declared
that all high numbers should be represented by multiples of
simple powers of ten and he also hit upon the law which underlies
the modern calculating device called logarithms. |
| The Sand Reckoner is a remarkable work
in which Archimedes proposes a number system that uses powers of a myriad myriad (base 100,000,000)
and is capable of expressing numbers up to 8 x 1063 in modern notation. (Myriad represents 10,000).
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He argues in this work that this number is large enough to count the number of grains of sand
which could be fitted into the universe.
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