Quote Originally Posted by Polymirize
Numbers fall into the same category as language...
"Look, there tree. Look, other tree. More tree? "two" trees."

Any simpleton caveman can get numbers and basic arithmatic.

It was at least the 6th century before some serious mathmaticians in southern asia started working out the concept of a placeholder... One integer to rule them all. To make magic happen during multiplication and division.

amen.

unpwnt
Lol, me and a buddy of mine were talking about this the other day. I tried to tell him that mathematics existed before numbers (and used the same kind of example, a caveman saying "rock"... "other rock".. "rocks!"). He didn't get my point.