Decimal the Roman numerals did, an intermediate base of 5. Notably, the polymath Archimedes (ca. 287–212 BC) invented a decimal positional system in his Sand Reckoner which was based on 10 and later led the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss to lament what heights science would have already reached in his days if Archimedes had fully realized the potential of his ingenious discovery. The Hittites hieroglyphs (since 15th century BC), just like the Egyptian and early numerals in Greece, was strictly decimal. Some non-mathematical ancient texts like the Vedas dating back to 1900–1700 BCE make use of decimals and mathematical decimal
Decimal numbers. Decimal The decimal numeral system (also called base-ten positional numeral system, and occasionally called denary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system. The way of denoting numbers in the decimal system is often referred to as "Decimal notation". A "decimal numeral", or just "decimal", or casually "decimal number", refers generally to the notation of a number in the decimal numeral system. Decimals may sometimes be identified for containing a decimal separator (for example the "." in or ). "Decimal" may also refer specifically to