Eyewitness: Encyclopedia of Science

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Transcription: Mathematics has a language of its own, which uses numbers and symbols instead of words and punctuation. The earliest recorded numbers were marks made on a stick. These marks were made in small groups of, for example, two or five. Eventually these groups were given symbols of their own, two, five, etc., and a system of arithmetic developed. Mathematicians introduced special symbols to replace words such as plus and equals. They also introduced special words to express new ideas. Terms such as triangle and square, for example, were applied to figures that are geometrically defined.