Binary numbers in Indian antiquity (Q5951597): Difference between revisions

It is shown that binary numbers were first discovered as early as the second or third century A.D. by Piṅgala, in his \textit{Chandaḥśāstra} (which was translated and edited by A. Weber in 1863), in an attempt to classify Sanskrit verse meters. The fact that in Piṅgala's binary system the low digit is on the left and the high value on the right, whereas Leibniz (as well as our current notation) uses the reverse convention, stands as evidence for the originality of both discoveries.