in units relative to the two legs). Archimedes was also in love with numbers. He tried to see what would happen if one took a sphere and turned it into a cylinder. This concept would later be applied to map making. Archimedes lived in Syracuse which at the time was at war with Rome. Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier while working on a mathematical problem. The Romans were not interested in mathematics for its own sake, and as a result mathematics declined. The Roman numeral system was clumsy and inefficient. One reason that Terry Jones theorizes might be was that the numerals that the Romans used were basically the old-fashioned lines of the Ishango bone. Jones discusses India's invention of a more efficient numeral system, including the invention of the concept of zero. He explains how the concept traveled west to the Caliphate. Then it arrived in Italy where it met fierce resistance. The reason for this was that most people were familiar only with the Roman numerals and not the superior Indian numerals. Eventually, the Hindu-Arabic numerals displaced the Roman ones. Jones discusses finally how Gottfried Leibniz invented the binary system, which is the foundation for modern digital computers. He planned on building a mechanical computer to use this system, but never followed through with the plan. Leibniz was convinced that 1 and 0 were the only numbers anyone really needed. In 1944, a computer called Colossus was used to crack enemy codes during World War II. Computers like Colossus evolved into modern computers, which are used for every type of number calculation. References External links 2005 television films 2005 films British television documentaries 2000s British television series 2005 in science BBC television documentaries about science BBC television documentaries about history British documentary films English-language television shows Documentary films about the history of science Documentary television series about mathematics Historical television series History of mathematics 2000s British films