You may say it all started with the five digits in the hand. That's counting. How did the written numbers originate? Roman numerals have some sense. One vertical line for "one" and (II) lines for two and so on with a slight variation from five onwards. What do the Arabic Indian numbers signify? You will be surprised to learn the logic of these curly burly shapes.

At the beginning they never had any curves. According to the mode of early writing curves were abhorred. They all consisted of Straight lines. What happens when straight lines join?  You get angles. Can you believe that all numeral notations show the identical number of angles as the number they denote?

From the numbers the number of angles is clearly equal to the value shown by the numeral. What about the rest? Let us see.

Isn't this strange? Of course Nine is a bit crazy. Isn't that the naughty number?

In order to get higher values the Indians introduced the "Zero". How many angles does it have? None or Infinity?