The Chinese Number System

1. The Chinese Number System

2. Chinese Numbers • The Chinese number system has characters that represent the numbers zero to nine. It also has special characters to represent multiples of ten. • The Chinese number system is similar to the English system in that it reflects the spoken language.

3. Numeric Representation • Chinese numbers are written from left to right, starting with the number of ten thousands, hundreds or tens etc… If a number ends in zero, the zero is not included for example: • The number 75 is written in Chinese using the characters, stating that there are 7 tens first, then you finish with the last digit if it is not zero. 7, 10’s and 5 or • You cannot write 75 as: • 893 written in Chinese would be 8 hundreds 9 tens and 3 .

4. Fractions • A fraction is written with the denominator first, followed by (meaning "parts of") and then the numerator. Each part of the fraction is written as a whole number. Mixed numbers are written with the whole-number part first followed by 又 ("and"), then the fractional part. • The fraction ⅔ would be written three parts of two. • The fraction 5 ⅚ would be written five and six parts of five.

5. Decimals • Decimal numbers are created by first writing the whole part, then • inserting a point Chinese symbol and then the decimal expression. • For Example 17.28 would be:

6. Calculations • Math calculations have been done with an abacus, called a Suanpan, for centuries and is still used today especially for young children just learning mental calculations, but the abacus is quickly being replaced with modern calculators because of the ease of calculations. • The bottom beads count the ones, tens, hundreds etc. from right to left. The top beads represent multiples of 5 in the each category. • Interactive Abacus websites! • http://www.mandarintools.com/abacus.html • http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/java/AbacusApp.html