Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

    Who Needs NUMBERS?

    May 01, 2021 4 minutes
    by Cheryl Bardoe
    art by Rupert van Wyk

    Long ago, people didn’t need a lot of fancy numbers. After all, you know who your children are; why would you need to know that there are “4” of them?

    But when small villages grew into big cities, people started to need bigger numbers to count sacks of grain, make trades, and collect taxes.

    The First Counters 35,000–20,000 BCE

    Tally marks—making a single line for each object counted—were probably the earliest numbers. Ancient animal bones scratched with tally marks have been found in Africa and Europe. This 25,000-year-old bone, called the Ishango bone, is from the Congo.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

    Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children1 min read
    Space Twins
    Scott and Mark Kelly are identical twins, and they’re also astronauts. In 2015, Scott spent a year on board the International Space Station while Mark stayed on Earth. That gave NASA the chance to study how living in space affects the human body. Bec
    Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children1 min read
    Bot's MIGHTY MATH
    Dances often start with a set of basic movements or steps that dancers combine to build a dance. Sometimes dances follow a written-down sequence of movements. Other dances are made up by the dancers as they follow the music. You can use dice to make
    Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children5 min read
    SHARING the SAME FACE
    I’m going to clone myself and make a twin! “Who’s who?” is a common question we face from people. Their eyes swivel between us. They probably feel they’re seeing double. That’s because we’re identical twins. Our faces look very, very similar. People

    Related