Ten symbols will write any whole number
Our numbers use ten symbols: 0 to 9. No more symbols are needed. A frame is a row of empty columns. Each column holds one symbol.
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Step 1 of 4
- An empty four-column frame.
- 4 thousands.
- 0 hundreds. The column is held, not missing.
- 7 tens, 3 ones: 4073.
Rule: A column holds one of ten symbols, 0 to 9. One more than 9 moves to the next column.
Remove the 0 and the 4 moves right. It is worth 400, not 4,000.
For example, 9 + 1 is written 10. It has a 0 in the ones column. It has a 1 in the tens column. So we never need an eleventh symbol. A new column is used instead.