Changes

Since at least the rebuilding of human civilization after the [[Great Flood]], all societies that have worked with numbers at all, have of necessity set limits on the numbers that they would or could work with.<ref name=Crandall>Richard E. Crandall. "[http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/largeno.html The Challenge of Large Numbers]." ''Scientific American'', February 1997. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from http://www.fortunecity.com/</ref> The widely-held view that a society once existed that had only three words for numbers, those words translating as "one," "two," and "many," has no historical warrant. On the other hand, the maximum size of numbers that any society in recorded history has handled, has largely depended on their techniques for notation and/or storage of numbers.

Since at least the rebuilding of human civilization after the [[Great Flood]], all societies that have worked with numbers at all, have of necessity set limits on the numbers that they would or could work with.<ref name=Crandall>Richard E. Crandall. "[http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/largeno.html The Challenge of Large Numbers]." ''Scientific American'', February 1997. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from http://www.fortunecity.com/</ref> The widely-held view that a society once existed that had only three words for numbers, those words translating as "one," "two," and "many," has no historical warrant. On the other hand, the maximum size of numbers that any society in recorded history has handled, has largely depended on their techniques for notation and/or storage of numbers.

Munafo<ref name=Munafo>Robert P. Munafo. "[http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html Large numbers]." 1996-2006, released under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. Retrieved May 23, 2007.</ref> puts all numbers into three classes, in order of increasing size:

Munafo<ref name=Munafo>Robert P. Munafo. "[http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html Large numbers]." 1996-2006, released under [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License]. Retrieved May 23, 2007.</ref> puts all numbers into four classes, in order of increasing size:

* Class 0: the smallest class, these numbers are easy to perceive directly. The largest class 0 number is six.

* Class 0: the smallest class, these numbers are easy to perceive directly. The largest class 0 number is six.

* Class 1: numbers that one cannot perceive directly, but that describe collections of objects that a person might still see with the naked eye. This class includes numbers from 7 to about one million (10⁶ in either the American or British system; see below).

* Class 1: numbers that one cannot perceive directly, but that describe collections of objects that a person might still see with the naked eye. This class includes numbers from 7 to about one million (10⁶ in either the American or British system; see below).