Editing Greek numerals (section)

==Higher numbers==
In his text ''[[The Sand Reckoner]]'', the natural philosopher [[Archimedes]] gives an upper bound of the number of grains of sand required to fill the entire universe, using a contemporary estimation of its size.  This would defy the then-held notion that it is impossible to name a number greater than that of the sand on a beach or on the entire world.  In order to do that, he had to devise a [[The Sand Reckoner#Naming large numbers|new numeral scheme]] with much greater range.

[[Pappus of Alexandria]] reports that [[Apollonius of Perga]] developed a simpler system based on [[Exponentiation|powers]] of the myriad; {{overset|α|Μ}} was 10,000, {{overset|β|Μ}} was 10,000<sup>2</sup> = 100,000,000, {{overset|γ|Μ}} was 10,000<sup>3</sup> = 10<sup>12</sup> and so on.<ref name=mactutor/>