My hiStory

*move review: Story of Maths: Language of the Universe

Do you know me? I'm already here before some knew I am here. I'm with you through the bad times and the good.Unconsciously, I'm with you in every actions you take. I'm with nature. Still don't know me? I'm here to have handshakes with you. Aren't you glad?

To give you a clue. Have you watched the movie, Story of Maths? I was there. Imagine you're meeting with a star. It'll be your pleasure. There, I was introduced by Marcus du Sautoy.

Let's have our first trip into my ancient times. My history.I know it sounds boring, but I am the exception. Before you know and get along with me, you have to know my past.

My story goes like this...delineating the phases of my history.

The passage above would be the possible event if math can talk. Sadly, it cant. Never. We just learn math, but never had an idea of where and how it started.Through the documentary of Sautoy and BBC, "The Language of The Universe"  which first introduced the relevance of fundamental mathematics to the present time before moving backward to where it started and emerged from. This gave emphasis on three civilizations: Egyptians, Babylonians, and Greeks. It dashes the progress of mathematics in the Mediterranean region initially in Egypt through the Greeks’ formalized geometry. As it goes along, there is surfacing of few notable methods that preceded by 100 decades years the formal mathematical methods.

In tracing back history, Du Sautoy embarked in Egypt in where made use of patterns for their daily living. Specifically the patterns of the seasons particularly the overflowing/ flooding of the Nile river which is vital and is of great significance to Egyptian’s economy and also includes practical problems that need to be solved say land areas for taxation purposes and bureaucracy that heads to the stasis of counting system. The use of decimal system through the use of body parts mostly fingers as an infrequent way of division and multiplication. Also the movie disclosed and delved into the cognition of binary numbers, fractions and solid shapes of the Rhind and Moscow Papyrus. Depressing fact about Egyptians wa that they did not comprehended of generalized proofs. Egyptians don’t have the idea of place value. Egyptians already discovered the concept of 3-4-5 triangle even before Phythagoras deal with it which is currently known to be in the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem.

The next tour dropped to Mesopotamia, the Babylonian times. They use the number system of the base 60 in which the time was being based and remains a mark until the present time. Obviously noted today, we have 60 minutes in an hour and 60 seconds in a minute. They were fascinated by the moon- 30. Afterwards, the use of quadratic equations for measuring land by the Babylonian was bared. Also Plimpton 322 was briefly dealt as to the controversy or who first discovered the Pythagorean Triples.

Covering Greece follows, which termed to be the home of the Greek Mathematics, on the list of known mathematicians were Archimedes, Euclid, Plato and Pythagoras who did a great contribution originating the transformation and the continuing development of math from a simple counting tool into a logical and systematic subject we are dealing currently. It was believed also as imposed in the movie that Greeks are the proof inventors which unfastened a chasm among other sciences and disciplines. As Plato said, "no one ignorant geometry can enter here". Also, he was behind the 5 Platonic solids that represent 5 elements.

The episode, some kind of boring but I can say really educational. An effective introductory to early mathematics and can be considered the utmost affable part of the series. Considering that mathematics is a field that assembles on its past and turns progressively complex and composite.

Thanks to their automated visuals, animations and treats of humor, Du Sautoy assembled the highly complicated ideas and conceptions engagingly and comprehensible. He was able to show off that math isn’t simply about making calculations, but most importantly and generally uncover the concealed and mystifying concepts and relationships of the universe by observing and finding patterns, highlighting the great innovations that eventually turned out to what we believe and regard "math" today. Du Sautoy was able to explain initially why a given discovery was or is relevant. Mathematics is anywhere unconsciously or consciously as well as very stimulating knowledge and accounts of where some of the notable numbers thoughts engendered from in history and explain our universe and reveal hidden worlds.

And I guess even the not so mathematically inclined people or those who have a bad treatment to math would love this. And I’ll accept disclaimers of this statement if there are. The whole first part of the movie series was good but I just observed something poor about the movie presentation and it’s the movie’s computer graphics to illustrate du Sautoy’s tour and narrations, it may be a small criticism and makes no sense to others, well for me it does.  I saw it progressively tough to focus on what he was explaining. After all, the videos are very informative and I love it.

Also I found the fascinating idea that men (and at times women) who valiantly take new stage, and blazed new stalks. Sautoy also discover some of the leading edge of mathematics today, and comprise conversation with those striving to castigate through the confinements of our modern mathematical understanding.

The market scenes led into the imminent mathematical deliberation. The visual breaks like the market scenes help me most to stay engaged. In math too much content without a break will often lose the average student (and I believed I belong to the averaged one). So I suppose those breaks helped others too.

My next reflection maybe not related to the whole topic of the first series but it disturbs me most. It is extremely atypical to the present and modern world unraveling countless mysteries and anonymities of nature, but still kept the majority population in poverty and debt. Are they (modernization and development) can’t be in direct increasing relation? Can’t it be that as the world progressing, the development is also increasing so with the poverty and debt to gradually diminish?  Well in the first place, unlocking of mysteries was practically done for the wellness of human.

Since math was originally and historically used to deal life, world and other that can be considered as part of nature then the phrase "Mathematics is the language of Nature" makes sense!

Hope you know me already.

Math