Mathematics in Antiquity

                Mathematics never fails to amuse me. Discovering its history made me appreciate Math more. Back in Aristotle’s or Plato’s time, people exerted so much effort to make Math more convenient and expedient for the future generations. Unlike today, we only need to make an effort to appreciate and love Math for us to comprehend it.

                First sign of Mathematics emerged in Egypt where the flooding of the Nile River stimulated them to count for how many days the flooding will persist. Numbers were represented as different symbols and was carved in a tablet. The relics of the tablets showed that people were studying Mathematics since then.

                Babylonian mathematics is also remarkable like the Egyptian’s. They were the ones that first used symmetrical designs and quadratic equation was learned in their time. Also, the concept of the right angle triangle first existed during their time.

                Greece is the home of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers. They were great contributors in the history of Mathematics. They discovered the harmonic series; Archimedes calculated the volume of the circle and sphere. I have learned that Pythagorean Theorem didn't actually come from Pythagoras; it was from one of his followers.

There’s something about Mathematics that most of the learners tend to have difficulties. Learning such subject is like a big burden to students and that they are complaining when they encounter it. Maybe discovering mathematics’ history will make students more appreciative about it. Maybe, it needs more patience to learn and be able to understand this challenging subject. There’s no reason to loath mathematics if you’ll just appreciate it wholeheartedly.

We are lucky enough that we are not the ones who are going to formulate and analyze the equation for Pythagoras’ theorem or to calculate the volume of sphere and circle or even to determine the value of π.