A Review on The Story of Maths 2 (documentary)
Ding dong. Since time immemorial, our eastern great grandfathers
looked for means to quench their insatiable thirst for knowledge ,especially in
the field were numbers aren’t just numerals and letters not your ordinary
language basics; where everything is dynamic-in a constant motion of patterns.
Mathematics’ omnipresence drove the urge of our ancestors in the pursuit of
learning and mastering this study. Needs, a five-letter word of undeniable
importance led them to formulate concepts and generate solutions, shaping the
mathematics we know today.
A certain creature popped out of water and showed a man
“symbols” in random order having the resemblance of our present-day 1,2, 3’s.
Myth or not, the Chinese people have this reputation of strong inclination to
mathematics. The Great
Wall of China shows an amazing work of engineering- the accuracy
of the distances involved, the angle of elevation and all were just well
computed. Being jack of all trades, their mathematicians were also astronomers
who studied the phases of the moon and calendar movements. Odd is for male as
even is to female. Geometric progression was reflected in the reality of one
empress, three consuls, nine wives, and 27 concubines sleeping with the head of
state in an indicated night (with the goal of having a successor) - the perks
of being a Chinese emperor that time.
Culture has been an important part of every country-it is
its face. To the Indians the idea that “humans were created from nothingness
and in time return to it” gave way to the formal recognition of a number merely
represented by blank spaces centuries ago-zero. Add, subtract, multiply
something with zero and you’ll get nothing. But by division, the possibilities
are endless. Also, the undying efforts of the Indian mathematicians gave birth
to the system of negative numbers, quadratic equations and trigonometry. Who
suck at those things? You’re clearly not alone. Anyway, we are to be grateful
to them. Knowing the required dimensions for a pathwalk in a rectangular garden
was made easier.
The 1-9’s we deal with every second, or the Hindu- Arabic
numerals came from the Arabs, who also introduced algebra- known as calculation
by reduction. Presently, kindergarten mathematicians’ common complaints include
y , a “hopeless romantic” and x being “hard to get”. But admit it. If it wasn’t
for algebra, computers, airplanes and televisions would not exist and we will
still wonder up to now who stole three cookies from the cookie jar, given a
certain number of suspects. We live in a world full of unknowns; we have to
represent those unknowns (through
letters) and simplify complexities.
Eastern mathematics sailed its way to the western world.
The Fibonacci numbers originally appeared in the Sanskrit oral tradition
emphasizing on how long syllables mixes with the short and how it is patterned (India ). On the
13th century, Leonardo Pisa considered the mating schemes of rabbits
and took note of the offspring they produce in the span of a month.
Interestingly, it is found out that at the end of the nth month, the number of pairs
of rabbits is equal to the number of new pairs (which is the number of pairs in
month n − 2)
plus the number of pairs alive last month (n − 1).1 In
other words, at the end of the fourth month, the original female has produced
yet another new pair, the female born two months ago produces her first pair
also, making 5 pairs.2
“When will be the next
full moon or drought?” “What month will these animals produce thirty
offspring?” “How is it possible to feed five equally hungry people with only
three big loaves of bread?” Aces of China ,
India , the Arabian world,
and Italy
were some of the few who were able to stop those questions from being asked. We
now know who to blame-to thank for, I mean.
They have always treated math as a gem, there is always more to it than
what one can find. It takes no overnight job to create such contributions which
allowed the past to be explained, the present to be understood and the future
to be realized.
References
1-2.
en.wikipedia.org
Glory
to God
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