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Quinary (base-5) is a numeral system with five as the base. This originates from the five fingers on either hand. In the quinary place system, five numerals from 0 to 4, are used to represent any real number. According to this method, five is written as 10, twenty-five is written as 100 and sixty is written as 220.
Contents |
Usage
A true quinary system, in which 25 is the higher group of 5, is very rare. Currently, only the Gumatj language of Australia is attested to have a true quinary system[1]. The Gumatj numerals are shown below:
| Number | Numeral |
|---|---|
| 1 | wanggany |
| 2 | marrma |
| 3 | lurrkun |
| 4 | dambumiriw |
| 5 | wanggany rulu |
| 10 | marrma rulu |
| 15 | lurrkun rulu |
| 20 | dambumiriw rulu |
| 25 | dambumirri rulu |
| 50 | marrma dambumirri rulu |
| 75 | lurrkun dambumirri rulu |
| 100 | dambumiriw dambumirri rulu |
| 125 | dambumirri dambumirri rulu |
| 625 | dambumirri dambumirri dambumirri rulu |
A decimal system with 5 as a sub-base is called biquinary, and is found in Wolof and Khmer. A vigesimal system with 5 as a sub-base is found in Nahuatl and the Maya numerals. Roman numerals are a biquinary system. The numbers 1, 5, 10, and 50 are written as I, V, X, and L respectively. Eight is VIII and seventy is LXX. The Chinese and Japanese versions of the abacus use a biquinary system to simulate a decimal system for ease of calculation. Urnfield culture numerals and some tally mark systems are also biquinary.
References
- ^ Harris, John (1982), Hargrave, Susanne, ed., "Facts and fallacies of aboriginal number systems", Work Papers of SIL-AAB Series B 8: 153-181, <http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/e_access/serial/m0029743_v_a.pdf>
See also
External links
- Quinary Base Conversion, includes fractional part, from Math Is Fun


