The Mayan civilization dates back to more than 5000 years BC and was highly advanced in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, commerce, and the study of time. They developed a “positional value†number system, which included the “zero†over a thousand years before Europe implemented such a system. The Mayan number system is a base twenty system (probably from counting all fingers and toes) with numbers (0-19). Today, humanity uses a base ten system with 0-9 numbers. For example, the base-10 number 965 would be 285 in the Mayan base-20 system. In addition, the Mayans developed (without computers) an incredibly accurate calendar with 365.2420 days per year. The most widely used calendar today in our high tech computer based world is the Gregorian calendar, computed to have 365.2425 days in a year, which is
0.0005 days different from the ancient Mayan calendar. How did the Mayans achieve their calendar accuracy and resolution without computers?
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