The ability to map numbers onto a line, a foundation of all
mathematics, is universal, says a study published May 30 in the
journal Science, but the form of this universal mapping is not
linear but logarithmic. The findings illuminate both the nature
and the limits of the human predisposition to measurement, a
foundation for science, engineering, and much of our modern
culture. The research was conducted with the Munduruku, an
Amazonian indigenous culture with a limited vocabulary of number
words and spatial terms, little or no formal education, and
little or no experience with maps, graphs, and rulers. Munduruku
adults and children spontaneously placed numbers on a line in a
compressed, logarithmic function, such that smaller numbers
appeared at greater spatial intervals. The study suggests that a
propensity to relate numbers to space is universal, but that the
mapping of successive integers and constant spatial intervals,
as on a ruler, is culturally variable and linked in part to
education. The research wa