The Mathematical Enigma of Guamán Poma's Yupana

Name: The Mathematical Enigma of Guamán Poma's Yupana
Brand: Springer Nature Switzerland
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

By Cinzia Florio

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Description

Against a century of inclusive studies, this book presents a new interpretation of the Inca calculating board known as the yupana, based on a different set of assumptions. Instead of seeing Inca numbers as positional, like the modern Hindu-Arabic numerals used by Western researchers, this new approach looks at them as additive, similar in organization to the numbers of ancient civilizations like Egypt. By analyzing Guamán Poma's work and considering the nature of the materials used by the Inca for recording and calculating with numbers, this new work finds a mathematical message, a multiplication algorithm, in the historical drawing. Finding a multiplication in the ancient drawing leads to considering the decipherment correct. The text is written to be accessible to non-experts, as well as experts in fields other than mathematics. The work is addressed to researchers in the field, those interested in the history of mathematics, those attracted by mathematical enigmas, and especially the Andean peoples searching for lost knowledge of their past.

Product details

Number of Pages:: 132
Release Date:: 2025-07-03
Publication Date:: 2025-07-03
Publisher:: Springer Nature Switzerland
Languages:: Original: English
ISBN10:: 3031926617
ISBN13:: 9783031926617
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:: [email protected]
Weight:: 369 g
Height:: 160 cm
Width:: 241 cm
Thickness:: 13 cm

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