Get of Your Ath Let's Do Some Math!

All I want for Christmas is Math. JOOOOOOOOKE! Please, I just want to enjoy my Christmas and escape from the clutches of evil. But no, the Universe has a different plan. We've become so dependent with math that we cannot survive without it and I guess I wouldn't also be enjoying my Christmas too. You see, math is everywhere. From the money our godfathers and godmothers give, the countdown before New Year, and pounds we’ll be gaining this Christmas break. I see math everywhere, it makes my skin crawl. Are you following me, you creepy stalker? Just kidding I hate love you math.

Our life wouldn't have been the same if it weren't for the first innovators of math, from the Ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. Maybe we wouldn’t have means to tell the date and time, maybe we wouldn’t have the system for measuring land or buying in the market and maybe we wouldn't have this headache inducing problems. Hate math? Have no fear for there are millions like you, BUT, our feelings are irrelevant! The combination of all our hate would never compare to the systematized progress math has given our society.

                To continue The Story of Maths, we travel to the East. When Greece fell into decline, the progress of mathematics halted. The east on the other hand had a different course which changed the west and gave birth to the modern world.

                We start at China, where they made calculations and measurements for building the Great Wall of China. We owe China the simple number system, Base 10 or Decimal place value system, which we use today. But they used special symbols in writing numbers that was more strenuous than the way we write numbers today, this was because they do not have zero as a number yet, they only use a blank space to represent zero. They believe that numbers have significant powers, even to this day. They were also drawn to patterns and sequences which showed in their creation of the magic square. Math was also vital for the running of their court. The emperor also used math to schedule his affairs with his harem. Not only was math vital for the running of the court, it was also central to the running of the state. Ancient China had a standardized system of weights, measures, and money. The Nine Chapters was used to educate civil servants and was written at probably 200 BC, this contained everyday problems such as trade, payment of wages and taxes and it contained the central theme of mathematics-how to solve equations. Mathematics from China is also used in the internet. By the 13^th century, one of the most important mathematician was Qin Jiushao, who found a way in solving cubic equations.

                Our next stop would be India, where they discovered the new number, zero which was inspired by their religion. The Indians transformed zero from a place older to a number that would made sense in its own right. And now with 10 digits, from 0 to 9, we could now capture astronomically larger digits. Brahmagupta, an amazing Indian mathematician, wrote Brahmasphutasiddhanta where he defined and proved some of the essential properties of zero.  Bhāskara II on the other hand discovered a new mathematical concept of dividing by zero and it wold ultimately result to infinity. They also discover negative numbers which they considered as debts. Brahmagupta also developed the way of writing quadratic equations and so the birth of x’s and y’s began. Indian mathematicians were also responsible for the birth of trigonometry. Madhava another Indian mathematician discovered the Infinite Series where he made an equation to captured “pi”.

Now in the Middle East, there lies a library called the House of Wisdom, where the Muslim scholars collected and translated the Ancient texts from the different Ancient cultures. Hindu-Arabic numerals were then used to revolutionize mathematics and to speed up calculations, these are then what we used today all over the world. He also discovered and wrote about Algebra. Algebra was such a huge breakthrough that analyses the way how numbers work. The cubic equations was cracked up by a Persian Mathematician called Omar Khayyam.

Headed by Italy, Europe started to explore and trade with the East and with that came the spread of knowledge especially the Hindu-Arabic Numbers, which spread throughout Europe. The Fibanacci numbers which is the sum of two preceding numbers also rose within them.  People starter to develop a new competition of mathematicians. It was generally assumed that it was impossible to find a general solution to all cubic equations. But Tartaglia proved them wrong. Way to go Tartaglia! But wait, there’s more, a man named Fior believed he too discovered the solutions to cubic equations. So the two participated in intellectual battle for mathematicians, and guess who won. Tartaglia! He then went on to search for the solutions to all the cubic equations. News spread, and a new villain appeared. Cardano persuaded Tartagia to share the secret with him, Tartagia trusted him with his secret but on the condition that Cardano wouldn’t reveal and publish it. But Cardano couldn’t resist discussing the solution. He shared it with his student, Ferrari. Ferrari realized that he could use Tartagia’s equation to solve more complicated quartic equation. Cardano couldn’t refuse his student’s brilliant findings, and so he broke his promise to Tartagia and published his work and his student’s work. And so Tartagia didn’t receive any penny nor glory for his work. Poor Tartagia.

                With the discovery of the east, the western world now had the pen in their hand to write their own mathematical story from the language of the East. With the discovery of zero, Hindu-Arabic numerals, and the infinite numbers, the modern world improved to what we are now today. 

Math is so cool, even Jack Black sings it.