# Tous!!!

Tous.  Ken nee’eesih’inoo.  Neeyeiheihinoo heesou’sii’ii.

Hi!  My name is Ken.  I am studying math.

A couple things that interest me are fractals and cultural math.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal

The equation Mandelbrot used to create his famous picture is $z_{n+1}=(z_n)^2+c$

http://www.amazon.com/Native-American-Mathematics-MIchael-Closs/dp/0292711859

This book mostly covers various number systems found among Native American tribes……one group had a base-8 number system!!!!

## 3 thoughts on “Tous!!!”

1. Samuel Coskey

Nice to meet you too!

Cultural math is very interesting. Today we primarily study one strain of math derived from the Greeks, added to by China and Arabia, and until recently, carried by mostly Western cultures.

But what kind of math did other cultures study? For that matter, if we met aliens tomorrow, what kind of math would they study? What are we missing by focusing so much on one body of mathematical ideas?

1. Ken Coiteux Post author

One thing I learned is that you create what you need. Native Americans didn’t need to create theorems or study Fibonacci numbers….they just created numbers for counting. Move south though, into Aztec, Maya, and Inca lands, math was starting to become a lot more developed: Quipus among the Inca, development of 0 as a number by the Maya, and geometrical plans of Aztec cities.

And I have to throw this little quip in……an elder among the Crow was credited to say that only fools use numbers larger than 1000………….