The sophistication of Inca administration, calendrics and engineering required facility with numbers. Numerical information was stored in the knots of quipu strings, allowing for compact storage of large numbers. These numbers were stored in base-10 digits, the same base used by the Quechua language and in administrative and military units. These numbers, stored in quipu, could be calculated on yupanas, grids with squares of positionally varying mathematical values, perhaps functioning as an abacus. Calculation was facilitated by moving piles of tokens, seeds or pebbles between compartments of the yupana. It is likely that Inca mathematics at least allowed division of integers into integers or fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions.
The sophistication of Inca administration calendrics and engineering required facility with numbers Numerical information was stored in the knots of quipu strings allowing for compact storage of large numbers These numbers were stored in base-10 digits the same base used by the Quechua language and in administrative and military units These numbers stored in quipu could be calculated on yupanas grids with squares of positionally varying mathematical values perhaps functioning as an abacus Calculation was facilitated by moving piles of tokens seeds or pebbles between compartments of the yupana It is likely that Inca mathematics at least allowed division of integers into integers or fractions and multiplication of integers and fractions