Quoting Richard Guy <rkg@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>:
I think it's entirely due to the differences in writing. Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi from right to left. Most of the rest from left to right -- is this due to an inherent right- or left-handedness?
Yes. If you write with pen and ink, you can keep from smearing what you just wrote. Painting with a brush or incising clay tablets, it doesn't much matter. Who knows what stone cutters have to deal with (but paying them calls for an economy of verbiage)?
... There is a practical advantage -- (provided you read from left to right) that you get to know the most significant digits first (tho not how significant until you get to the end).
More recently, that was the difference between the Motorola 6800 and the Intel 8080.
For polynomials, I guess that we just got used to putting the big things first, i.e., on the left.
But power series work the other way around. No doubt to avoid that last term ... . - hvm ------------------------------------------------- www.correo.unam.mx UNAMonos Comunicándonos