From Zero to Hero

In this second installment of Story of Maths, we are introduced to the other part of the world where mathematics evolved too.  China, India, Baghdad and Persia in the east and Bologna and Italy in the west all had big contributions to mathematics. Many mathematical advances were showcased and we can easily relate to it because this part is like the ‘Discovery of Fire by man’, in other words these things are very important and these advances made mathematics what it is today.

            The Decimal Place Value system was shown by the host and the Chinese were the first ones to use this kind of system by using rods but they did not use it for writing. It is similar to what we are using today but they did not have a symbol of zero so they needed to make 10, 1000, 10 000 symbols. That absence of zero did not stop them from their interest in numbers in fact there was an Emperor believing that numbers had a significance in their lives in which many Chinese people today reflect their past in which they are very particular with numbers like 8 for good luck. There was a legend in which the emperor was visited by a sacred turtle from the yellow river and on the shell of the turtle was numbers arranged in a magic square, the ancient version of the Sudoku. From the vertical, horizontal and diagonal view, the numbers should add up to 15.

Mathematics is very important especially to the Emperor because he based on the calendar for his decisions. He was a very organized person and wanted his day to be what he wants it to be.  Astronomers were very important in the castle because they were like the advisers of the Emperor.  This next part is fun, well at least according to the host (yes he technically said, “Maths has never had such a fun purpose” pertaining to this part. LOL). The emperor wanted a system for sleeping with women, yes he wanted that, because he had to sleep with 121 women in the span of 15 nights! Later they realized that the system is actually a geometric sequence. Mathematics was not only used for sleeping with women but also essential for running the empire. There was a book called the “Nine Chapters” that taught math to the civil servants for taxations and other number related problems like money, wages and weights for the scales.  Chinese were taught to solve for equations which they used it for larger scales. This kind of solving did not arrive yet to the west but there was this particular man, Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was the “Prince of Mathematics” and was studying rocks in the asteroid belt and rediscovered this technique but Chinese had this technique centuries earlier.

The Chinese had formulated another technique of solving, the Chinese Remainder theorem.  This was used to measure the movement of planets and today it still has practical uses like internet cryptolography. Then after establishing math in their country, the golden age of the Chinese had arrived. Qin Jiushao was a corrupt official but he formulated equations like the cubic equations. He found a solution to solve it by wanting to solve for the dimensions of Mao Zedong’s museum. This technique was not discovered in Europe until Isaac Newton’s approximation method was formulated. These techniques can be applied to complicated methods and was very useful and high level of mathematics but this only gives approximation not the exact values which were not enough for math. I can really say that Mathematics is very rich in China and we owe a lot from them.

Indians had several essential discoveries in mathematics which was going to change the world forever. Many said that the Indian’s way of counting numbers was one of the greatest innovations of all time which made mathematics a “Universal Language”. There was a problem with the other number systems which many ancient civilizations had trouble in their number system, they lack the number zero and the Indians were the ones responsible for creating the Zero. They had this concept from their religion in which they believe that we all came from nothingness and will come back to nothingness and another source tells that the zero came from studying the rocks in which when you remove the rock there is a space created. The zero from being a place holder became a number in which it can be used for investigation and calculation. The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta proved some properties of zero and formulated his rules: 1+0=1; 1-0= 1; 1x0=0. But he did not know 1 divided by zero and he did not know the concept of infinity. Then a 12^th century Indian mathematician Bhaskara II proved that when I divide a fraction smaller I get more and more pieces.

            Indians discovered a new set of numbers which is negative numbers in which they had the idea of debt. The kind of approach the Indians have towards mathematics led them to solving quadratic equations. Brahmagupta’s view on negative numbers allowed him to realize that quadratic equations had always 2 solutions and was way ahead by a thousand years from the French discovering the quadratic equation. Then another discovery by the Indians is Trigonometry which translates geometry to numbers and vice-versa. Right triangles were used in trigonometry with the sine functions and with these, astronomers used this to determine the relative distance of the earth and the moon and the earth and the sun without leaving the earth and that these 3 creates a right triangle. Another great success of the Indians was the infinite concept from one village in India then this concept lighted up the way to the discovery of pi. One mathematician gave a very exactly value of pi as 3.1416 and computed for the circumference of the earth using pi and he was off by just 70 miles from the true value which was pretty awesome that time. He could have been proclaimed the ‘man of the year’ or the ‘sexiest man alive’ that time for his discovery!

            The one place I was surprised to see in this documentary is Baghdad. Maybe I was just stereotyping or what but I was surprised that this place had a very big impact in science and mathematics. There was a ‘House of Wisdom’ in which scholars teach astronomy, zoology, medicine, chemistry, and math.  The scholars’ curiosity led them to discovering geometrical patterns that covers buildings and discovered all the 2d patterns possible. There was a Persian mathematician in the House of Wisdom and responsible for introducing the Hindu-Arabic Numerals, the numbers from 0-9. He created another language of math which is Algebra which is prove to be very useful even today especially during exams, ha ha! He used quadratic equations to prove that Algebra is useful.

It would be another 500 years to find another way to solve the cubic equation in the west.

            Because of the trading that happened between the east and the west, the knowledge was also passed. There was a man named Leonardo of Pisa or famously known as Fibonacci promoted a new number system which is the Hindu-Arabic Numerals. The Authorities was threatened so they banned the new system but it still spread out throughout Europe because it was easier that the Roman Numerals. He also discovered a pattern which is called the Fibonacci sequence and the host explained it through rabbits giving birth. I was amazed by this sequence and the way it was explained was phenomenal! I understood it right away and realized that the Fibonacci sequence may be just around similar to the exponential growth.

            As the search for the solution of the cubic equation continues, it was continued in Bologna. The University of Bologna was taking mathematics to the next level. They held mathematical competitions where many people would gather to watch, just like concerts or basketball games which many people flock and desperately watch the games or the artists performing. This was the ‘fun’ during 16^th century, imagine that! One scholar proved solving cubic equations was possible and he was Tartaglia. He had such bloody childhood, slashed in the face with a saber by a French soldier that left him a big scar in his face and a slight speech disability. Poor kid, he was just 12 years old! But that did not stop him from overcoming the giant. He found a solution to one type of cubic equation but he got competition who was Fior. They were arranged to fight against each other in the mathematical competition and this was named as the fight of the century, maybe like the mega fights between Kobe vs. Michael Jordan, FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva, or Manny Pacquiao vs. Mayweather Jr.  Tartaglia only know how to solve for 1 type of cubic equation but he searched for other solutions 2 days before game day and he was successful but he told his secret to a sweet-talker Cardano who was also searching for the solution for the cubic equation promising not to publish his work but Cardano did anyways. Poor Tartaglia.

            I apologize for this being so long but I had fun making this. I realized that if you have that desire, determination, passion, dedication, and commitment you can do anything you want. There may be low times in our life like Tartaglia’s but we need to overcome that in order for us to know what success is and God is always ready to help and He is bigger than any problem. Sometime people may bash you or deny you but don’t let that stop you from achieving your dreams, pain may be settling in but remember pain is weakness leaving the body. Success begins with nothing and when you put that heart and work you will turn your story from the guy from zero to hero!