Mathematical Greatness

            “Understanding maths is the difference between the life and death.” That was an intriguing line uttered by the speaker, Marcus du Sautoy, an Oxford professor and pop-science mathematician extraordinaire, upon the opening of the first episode of the documentary film, The Story of Maths, co-produced by Open University and BBC, and entitled The Language of the Universe.

            This episode started with an overview of mathematics as the fundamental and essential discipline that provides knowledge in explaining the phenomena of our physical world. Extending across the globe, it had already changed the lives of the people of different cultures thousands of years ago and still changing ours up to the present time. The episode also pointed out man as the key holder in the evolution of the basic concepts and foundations of mathematics turned into different useful applications.

            Through the track of time, the history of mathematics had gone a long range. However, this episode focused only on the mathematics of the first three ancient civilizations namely Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece.  The journey of du Sautoy began in Egypt where the first signs of mathematics existed. River Nile, which was the lifeline of Egypt for millennia, was an interesting part of the development of the Egyptians’ mathematical inclinations. It was in that case that these brilliant practical problem solvers learned to record patterns of seasons with regards to the flooding of the Nile which was vital to their economy. A very strong link between bureaucracy and development of mathematics was also observed in Egypt wherein there was a certain importance in knowing the area of a farmer’s land for it to be taxed accordingly. In addition, body measurements such as the arm length or cubit were presented.

            Another notable part of Egyptian mathematics is their introduction of the first numbers in history, the Egyptian decimal system. These earliest mathematical innovators also formulated the 3-4-5 triangle but unfortunately, there were still no generalized proofs in connection with those during their time.

            Du Sautoy’s travel continues to the home of the scribes, Mesopotamia. Babylonians were known for their base 60 number system which became the basis of how we tell the time today. This was the reason why we have 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. The contents of Plimpton 322, a famous clay tablet used by Babylonians to preserve their mathematical records were also discussed. Babylonians also discovered the quadratic equations that were used to measure land. These masters of tactical mathematics were also avid game players and often play a version of the backgammon which required a very fast skill in mental arithmetic which they have.

                        Lastly, the tour of du Sautoy moved on to another early civilization people who were as passionate about mathematics as the Babylonians were. They were the Greeks, whom du Sautoy described as the true founders of mathematics as they were able to invent proofs. As to his own point of view, he believed that proofs opened up a gulf between the other sciences and were as true today as they were 2,000 years ago. This was an idea he emphasized in a long duration of the film.  The contributions of some of the greatest and well known Greek mathematicians including Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid, and Archimedes were also mentioned as the ones who transformed mathematics from a tool for counting into an analytic subject we are familiar to today. The commitment of Hypatia of Alexandria to the same subject matter was also astounding.

            Indeed, this episode had given the viewers a brief but concise background of the mathematics in general and its history starting from the mathematics of the earliest Western Civilizations. The discoveries of these ancient civilization people had served as strong foundations of the innovations in the world through time.

             After watching the movie, my heart and mind were filled with a renewed love for mathematics. I had a deeper understanding of the different origins of the things that comprised math. This feeling was something I never felt before towards this subject matter and couldn't explain; either that it came from my guilt of not knowing how hard were the lives of the people involved just to be part of solving world’s greatest problems, only for me to disregard all of those, or by being less serious in learning mathematics due to its difficulty and complexity.

Many of my unanswered questions about mathematics were revealed by the film as the secret details of how early people solved their problems without knowing that they were already been able to demonstrate methods in connection with mathematics, were uncovered. I was then mesmerized by how these things came to be most especially the Egyptian pyramids. Also, we should be very grateful to the masters of this field for imparting their knowledge and devoting their whole lives loving mathematics up to their last breath. We should appreciate and love mathematics as much as they do. We should not merely take this subject for granted for it would be very useful in our lives and the lives of the people around we could share it to.

This film episode all in all, discarded the views of mathematics as a boring subject and made it rather interesting and fascinating. Although there were times when I could not fully understand what du Sautoy was saying, I still had a catch for most of the topics. The breaks throughout the documentary film helped me wonder on the words uttered in different accents.

Du Sautoy was a wonderful host and his enthusiasm in the subject was further demonstrated through his hands-on examples that gave viewers a clearer understanding of the topics being discussed.  Although not that significant, the computer graphics used to illustrate his narrations were absolutely terrible.  This should be acted upon so that the film could have a greater impact to the viewers.

I highly recommend that this film would be viewed by more people especially my fellow youth in order for them to appreciate more the legacies passed on to us by the ancient people and value them more. Even in our simple ways, let us not waste this knowledge held on to us and so, we should use them to come up with more beneficial things. Let this knowledge lead to more positive effects and advanced improvements in technologies and other things that the present and the next generations could use. Humans should learn to utilize the knowledge of mathematics not for destruction but for the betterment of our nations.