Empress of the Sciences

Often times, when I hear the word ‘math’ the first thing that comes to my mind is 'oh God, please no'. All joking aside, the second thing that comes to my mind are numbers. Math deals with numbers. This is indeed true. But little do most of us know math is much more than that. Is it really just limited to equations and calculations?

It is a subject that is often feared and taken too seriously. Would you ever associate it with pyramids, paintings, artwork, calendars, the Nile River or board games? The connection between these things and math is presented by Marcus du Sautoy in the first episode of the series entitled The Story of Maths. He ventured throughout the world to revisit three ancient civilizations: Egyptians, Babylonians and Greeks to show how these became the founders of math.

In Egypt, the Nile River became the people’s source of livelihood. They had to keep track of the days and seasons to make sure there was produce. This gave rise to the counting system. Body parts were used for measurements and the need for bureaucracy fueled the Egyptians to solve for length and area to manage lands. Problems as simple as dividing bread equally between people became the stepping stone of fractions. These are also exhibited in the Eye of Horus which was an early indication of geometric series. On a much bigger scale, the knowledge of these has led to the understanding of shapes, more specifically the circle. The creation of the pyramids showed early signs of calculus. From solutions of simple problems, they were able to generate answers for much bigger ones.

The Babylonians solved problems much like the Egyptians did. But instead of using powers of ten, they used powers of sixty. Their discovery of base 60 was very successful and is used today to tell time (60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute) and it recognizes place value which gave rise to the concept of zero to represent ‘nothing’ in between numbers. Their need to measure land led to the use of the quadratic equation which is one of the greatest discoveries in math. Even during leisure time, they were calculating without them noticing. The Babylonians applied math in many things; whether it be in love or in board games.

The Greeks built structures that were geometrically perfect. They contributed greatly to mathematics by creating proofs. These are the backbone of math. These discoveries by Plato, Euclid and Pythagoras are timeless and are as true today as they were before. 

          After watching the show I realized just how brilliant man can be. Lucky for us today we are just learning the different equations that have already been discovered and created by great minds of the past. I can’t imagine how life was like for the mathematicians. To have the constant need to answer questions and make proofs and solutions to back these up. So going back to the question: is math really just about equations and calculations? Now, I can confidently say it’s not limited to these. Rather, it is the foundation of intellectual life.