they wanted numbers below zero and called them negative numbers
Interesting note: as late as the 18th century, many mathematicians considered negative numbers to be "nonsense". Negative numbers did not become universally accepted as existing until about the same time that imaginary numbers did. Before the wide-spread acceptance of negative numbers, payments were credits and deposits were debits. A credit subtracted the payment from your balance, while a debit added the payment to your balance. After the advent of negative numbers, it was shown that subtraction is simply adding a negative number. So a payment (which is a subtraction) can be reinterpreted to be a negative number being added to your balance.
Imaginary numbers are numbers whose square is a negative number. They arose as a means of working with square roots of negative numbers; in fact, the first known mention of a square root of a negative number is a very brief one from a work called Stereometrica. It was written in the 1st century CE by a Greek mathematician, Heron of Alexandria. Imaginary (and thus, complex) numbers were not ever accepted widely, though, until the 1700s, because of the work of Euler and Gauss.
it was around the time of christ.Although the first set of rules for dealing with negative numbers was stated in the 7th century by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, it is surprising that in 1758 the British mathematician Francis Maseres was claiming that negative numbers "... darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple" .Maseres and his contemporary, William Friend took the view that negative numbers did not exist. However, other mathematicians around the same time had decided that negative numbers could be used as long as they had been eliminated during the calculations where they appeared.It was not until the 19th century when British mathematicians like De Morgan, Peacock, and others, began to investigate the 'laws of arithmetic' in terms of logical definitions that the problem of negative numbers was finally sorted out.However, there were references to negative numbers far earlier...In 200 BCE the Chinese number rod system (see note1 below) represented positive numbers in Red and Negative numbers in black. An article describing this system can be found here . These were used for commercial and tax calculations where the black cancelled out the red. The amount sold was positive (because of receiving money) and the amount spent in purchasing something was negative (because of paying out); so a money balance was positive, and a deficit negative.Negative intergers were accepted around the time of Christ.
we dont know yet.....
Negative numbers were accepted in the 1700's
It seems that negative numbers have been used around the time of Christ, but it took centuries more before they were generally accepted. See here for some history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_numbers#History
they wanted numbers below zero and called them negative numbers
Interesting note: as late as the 18th century, many mathematicians considered negative numbers to be "nonsense". Negative numbers did not become universally accepted as existing until about the same time that imaginary numbers did. Before the wide-spread acceptance of negative numbers, payments were credits and deposits were debits. A credit subtracted the payment from your balance, while a debit added the payment to your balance. After the advent of negative numbers, it was shown that subtraction is simply adding a negative number. So a payment (which is a subtraction) can be reinterpreted to be a negative number being added to your balance.
Imaginary numbers are numbers whose square is a negative number. They arose as a means of working with square roots of negative numbers; in fact, the first known mention of a square root of a negative number is a very brief one from a work called Stereometrica. It was written in the 1st century CE by a Greek mathematician, Heron of Alexandria. Imaginary (and thus, complex) numbers were not ever accepted widely, though, until the 1700s, because of the work of Euler and Gauss.
it was around the time of christ.Although the first set of rules for dealing with negative numbers was stated in the 7th century by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, it is surprising that in 1758 the British mathematician Francis Maseres was claiming that negative numbers "... darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple" .Maseres and his contemporary, William Friend took the view that negative numbers did not exist. However, other mathematicians around the same time had decided that negative numbers could be used as long as they had been eliminated during the calculations where they appeared.It was not until the 19th century when British mathematicians like De Morgan, Peacock, and others, began to investigate the 'laws of arithmetic' in terms of logical definitions that the problem of negative numbers was finally sorted out.However, there were references to negative numbers far earlier...In 200 BCE the Chinese number rod system (see note1 below) represented positive numbers in Red and Negative numbers in black. An article describing this system can be found here . These were used for commercial and tax calculations where the black cancelled out the red. The amount sold was positive (because of receiving money) and the amount spent in purchasing something was negative (because of paying out); so a money balance was positive, and a deficit negative.Negative intergers were accepted around the time of Christ.
it was around the time of christ.Although the first set of rules for dealing with negative numbers was stated in the 7th century by the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta, it is surprising that in 1758 the British mathematician Francis Maseres was claiming that negative numbers "... darken the very whole doctrines of the equations and make dark of the things which are in their nature excessively obvious and simple" .Maseres and his contemporary, William Friend took the view that negative numbers did not exist. However, other mathematicians around the same time had decided that negative numbers could be used as long as they had been eliminated during the calculations where they appeared.It was not until the 19th century when British mathematicians like De Morgan, Peacock, and others, began to investigate the 'laws of arithmetic' in terms of logical definitions that the problem of negative numbers was finally sorted out.However, there were references to negative numbers far earlier...In 200 BCE the Chinese number rod system (see note1 below) represented positive numbers in Red and Negative numbers in black. An article describing this system can be found here . These were used for commercial and tax calculations where the black cancelled out the red. The amount sold was positive (because of receiving money) and the amount spent in purchasing something was negative (because of paying out); so a money balance was positive, and a deficit negative.Negative intergers were accepted around the time of Christ.
China, probably between the 10th and 2nd century BCE.
we dont know yet.....
The concept of negative numbers was first documented by Chinese mathematicians around the 2nd century BC. These numbers were initially used to solve practical problems related to debt and payments.
$19,000.00
There is no single commonly accepted definition for "whole numbers". Depending on the definition used, zero, as well as negative integers (like -1, -2, etc.) may, or may not, be considered part of the "whole numbers".