Talk:Hebrew numerals
From Academic Kids
Normal practice in writing numbers does not use the sofit forms of the letter. Hundreds greater than 400 are usually made by combination, for example 700 = 400 + 300 = tav shin.
I removed the following section, added by an anon:
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Interesting fact
The Arabs did not invent the Arabic numerals, but instead the Hebrews did. The Hebrews decided to not use the number system that we use today except to express big numbers like 19,372, which could not be expressed in Hebrew numerals.
I don't believe it's true. If it is, please provide some kind of reference. -- uriber 22:03, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Date example
The example looks wrong. Shouldn't there be a ב before the אדר? - Wing
- Adar אדר is the name of the month, of course. The letter ב, if added, would make it mean literally "4th in Adar", or the 4th of Adar. This is possible, though not necessary in Hebrew dates. It is correct even as "4th Adar".
Arabic numerals
Sorry, though it is true the Arabs did not invent what we now call Arabic numerals, they brought them from India, the place where they were invented. There is no reason to believe that these numerals were invented by any other people, Hebrew or otherwise.
Furthermore, the Hebrew numerals can be used to express numbers over 1,000.
Cbdorsett 07:41, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Thousands
The article says that when expressing years using Hebrew numberals, due to the fact that they are in thousands, for example, with five thousands, an ה should be added before the hundreds, and it is the thousands. This is true, but I really don't think it should be a seperate word. i.e, the year 5764 should not be expressed as ה' תשס"ד, but as התשס"ד. The ה cannot be mistaken to not be the thousands, because it appears before the hundreds.
Also, it is possible to express millions (and so on) this way: the number 63,948,031 can be expressed as סגתתקמחל"א (note this is just one character longer than the roman expression of the number).
- Has this representation ever been used? Do you have a reference?--Doron 21:39, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
