Unicode 15 includes glyphs for a beautiful base-20 number system invented by Inuit school children in the 90s
Math is called the “universal language,” but a unique dialect is being reborn
This is SO cool. The examples make so much more sense to my brain than Arabic numerals, even though I have no familiarity with the Inuit language. I do have severe ADHD so I'm not sure if that's a factor? I had a math tutor all through school because I was so bad at it and failed high school chemistry because of math. I wonder if alternative systems like this could help other people who are also visual learners and really struggle to understand basic math.
I do think it's very interesting, having a visual script to succinctly describe a base-20 system. The example problems were very softball, I get it to explain the function but I don't know how helpful it would be for multiplying and dividing high one digit numbers.
But for adding and subtracting (which is helpful for most everyday needs) it's quite intuitive, because the W is equal to the sideways slash and the sideways M is equal to the vertical slash.