Number
&
Measure

Now we know humans use numbers in all sorts of different ways,

some of them useful

and some of them just for play,

and all that number stuff is called mathematics,

or maths for short.

Numbers are useful when there is a problem to be solved

and using maths is the way to find an answer,

though there are lots of problems that maths can never solve.

But when humans play with numbers they are just exploring maths,

the way that numbers are used,

to try to understand more and more about what numbers really are.

And that way they discover new patterns.

They start with what they know,

and then see if that means they can prove something else from the things they know,

and if they can then they can see if they can go on

to prove something else from that.

And sometimes they can look at things

that seem incredibly complicated at first,

but in the end when they see the maths by which they are shaped,

see them as beautifully simple.

And as they discover things about numbers

they also discover different ways to use them

to solve problems in the world

in ways that were impossible before.

And they found ways of using the numbers that they could agree on,

though it turned out that it was sometimes easier to use one way than another,

one system rather than another.

One system might be better for calculating,

and another for estimating.

Or sometimes a system of numbers would be used just as a reminder

of the way numbers were used a long long time ago,

traces of humankind's earliest need for numbers,

those they used to measure value and time,

the division of the time of day, and agreement on the value of money.

sesame play

magic squares fibonacci /primes

close round numbers /guessing /being wrong/close Numbers can show things in a different light

Pratchett unreal value / value measure

telling time / experiencing time prayer times clock of days ramadhan and hajj for each year