Excerpt from Tabulae primi mobilis by Giovanni Bianchini.

Since then, it has radically changed the course of mathematics.

In the episode, Brummelen said, I was working on the manuscript of this astronomer, Giovanni Bianchini.

When was the decimal point invented?

Excerpt from “Tabulae primi mobilis” by Giovanni Bianchini. (Photo: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence viaHistoria Mathematica)

I saw the dots inside of a tablein a numerical table.

And I’m afraid I got rather excited at that point.

I think they probably thought I was crazy.

When was the decimal point invented?

Excerpt from “Tabulae primi mobilis” by Giovanni Bianchini. (Photo: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence viaHistoria Mathematica)

you could listen to the rest of the episodehere.

A mathematical historian recently discovered that the decimal point is about 150 years older than we thought.

It was first used in a text by Venetian merchant Giovanni Bianchini in the 1440s.