A new discovery has excited mathematicians the globe. Recently-unearthed documents show a decimal point the records a merchant named Giovanni Bianchini, who lived in Venice the 1440s. Historians have hailed the find as being significant, as it means the decimal point is 150 years older than was previously thought. Bianchini was a keen astronomer. He made many notations about his observances the heavens. He also provided Venetians with horoscopes based astrological calculations the alignment of stars and planets. Mathematician Dr Glen Van Brummelen noticed the use a decimal point in one Bianchini's treatises 1441 and 1450.
Decimal points are such an integral part life today that it seems they would have been used thousands of years. Historians say some versions decimals have existed over 1,000 years. Records show a form the mathematical dot being used the Islamic world in the 900s. It is likely that Bianchini travelled to the Middle East and was influenced scholars there who were key forging many mathematical concepts. Other historical evidence shows intellectuals using a form of the point in China in the 1200s. Before the recent discovery, the earliest known definitive use the decimal point was in 1593. Then, German mathematician Christopher Clavius used a system of decimals his study of astronomy.
