Class 8 Maths Part 1 Chapter 3, A Story of Numbers, follows Reema’s discovery of 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian symbols to trace how humanity invented counting, bases and place-value number systems culminating in the Hindu number system.
What Class 8 Maths Chapter 3 Covers
3.1 Mechanism of Counting and 3.2 Early Number Systems explore one-to-one correspondence, body-part counting, Ishango and Lebombo tally bones, counting in twos, and Roman numerals.
3.3 The Idea of a Base uses the Egyptian base-10 hieroglyphic system and base-5 landmark numbers to show how grouping by powers of a base works and why non-positional systems need endless new symbols.
3.4 Place Value Representation compares the Mesopotamian (base 60), Mayan (base 20 with a shell zero), Chinese rod numerals, and the Hindu decimal place-value system with zero as a full number.
Exercises in Chapter 3
- Figure it Out exercise sets after each major section, with complete answer keys at the end of the chapter.
Read Class 8 Maths Chapter 3 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 2: Power Play
- Next: Chapter 4: Quadrilaterals
- Hindi medium: Class 8 Maths Part 1 Chapter 3 PDF in Hindi (Ganita Prakash)
- All Maths chapters and the other Class 8 books: Class 8 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
- Every book chapter by chapter: NCERT chapter wise PDF
FAQ
Which ancient number systems are compared in Ganita Prakash Chapter 3?
Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian (base 60), Mayan (base 20), Chinese rod numerals, and the Indian (Hindu) base-10 place-value system.
What made the Hindu number system revolutionary?
Combining base-10 positional place value with ten digits (0–9), where 0 acts both as a placeholder and a number in its own right.