How Did The Aztec Use Math

The Aztec were a group of indigenous people that ruled over large parts of what is now known as central and southern Mexico form the late 15th to the early 16th century. They were one of the most mathematically advanced Mesoamerican groups of their time and had some of the most complicated mathematical writings of any other pre-Columbian people. Many historians and mathematicians have put forth vast amounts of effort into studying Aztec mathematics and how they came to be. Math was a big part of daily Aztec life as education was something that was of great value to the Aztec. The Aztec used math when studying the night sky, planing out crop fields, keeping military records, and even created their own elaborate calendar system.

They were fascinated by the movement of celestial body's and the gods associated with them. Although most of the information associated with Aztec astronomy has been lost we still have enough to view some of the captivating astronomical discoveries made by their civilization. One of these discoveries being a complex system in which they calculated that the cycle of Venus in relevance to the sun is 584 days (19 months). The Aztec were also able to mathematically calculate the eclipse season despite not knowing the shape or size of the earth. This meant they knew when an eclipse would occur however, they were not able to determine if it would be a full or partial eclipse. Not only did the Aztec calculate the cycle of Venus and the eclipse season they also created a number system in which they kept track of natural disasters. We can view this in the very detailed and well organized documents they left behind. The Aztec were the only early Americans to leave behind technical

They became a dominant and powerful force throughout many parts of Mexico and around the 11th century AD. flourished as a civilization. They soon became one of the strongest military groups of their time taking over about 500 small states, and around 5 to 6 million people. The Aztec lead several other groups often times taking grand taxes and people as sacrifices to the gods. In order to keep track of their achievements the Aztec created a mathematical system involving symbols very similar to the one used to find the area and perimeter of their agricultural fields. Symbols stood for numbers for example a diamond symbol represented 10, a flag 20, feathers representing hundreds, and a bag of cacao beans representing