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Yupana: The Fibonacci number grid-based calculator of the Incas (2019)

Mathematics Magazine Monthly online publication for students and teachers.

table-yupana(or archaeological yupana): a system of trays of different sizes and materials, carved at the top of the device into geometric boxes, into which seeds or pebbles were placed, presumably for performing complex arithmetic calculations. Although very different from each other, most of the scholars who have dealt with table-yupana, have then extended its reasoning and theories to the yupana of Poma de Ayala and vice versa, perhaps in an attempt to find a unifying thread or a common method. Across the provinces, the quipu found more pragmatic usage by storing data about the population: how many people lived in the area and how many of them were male or female, how many children or how many served the army–all of it was inscribed in the strings and knots.

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