Amazonian indigenous culture demonstrates a universal mapping of number onto space
Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 13:49
in Mathematics & Economics
The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all mathematics, is universal, says a study published this week in the journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not linear but logarithmic. The findings illuminate both the nature and the limits of the human predisposition to measurement, a foundation for science, engineering, and much of our modern culture.