Mathematics: Language of the Universe

Name: Danica Mae A. Manubag

Mathematics: Language of the Universe

            Mathematics, what really is it? What is its application in our daily living? For students, Mathematics simply is a word mostly feared because of its brain-tearing equations, long calculations and word problems that are even impossible to solve. Add to it the rules, theorems and postulates that are really difficult to understand. Some of the students, including me, would even say, “Is there a need to study math, its algebraic expressions and equations if we can't even apply it in the real world? Like who would go to a supermarket and buy 15x²+6x+3y² sachets of coffee for $4x³y²?” Without realizing, everything we do, from the calendar that we follow, to the temperature of our body and even to the structural design of the buildings we see around, includes Math. But where does Math came from? What is the story behind its discovery? How did it began? The documentary, BBC: The Story of Maths, showed us a brief summary of how Math was formed and who contributed to the ideals that are mostly taught at school today.

            It all started with Early Egyptians where their records about their early discoveries in Math were written in sheets of papyrus called Mathematical papyrus. One of the important reasons why Early Egyptians needed to count was because they needed to keep track when the Nile River would flood. They even used patterns for season still to keep track of the flooding of the river. Egyptians have already been using decimals and they have no concept of place value. They used their body, specifically their hands, arms and other parts of the upper body, to express measurement. The concept of "using smaller shapes to generate larger shapes" was also used in their time.

            Babylonians have a different approach in Mathematics. In their time, they used weights to measure things the same as how we were taught to use weights when we were in high school. It shows that the weight of the specific thing being measured in one plate is equal to the sum of the weights placed on the other plate if and only if the two plates are balanced. Babylonians, different from Egyptians, already had the concept of place value. The biggest concern of these people was measuring the land, that’s why they thought of many ways and came up with the use of quadratic equation which became their greatest discovery. Next people who used Mathematics to their advantage were the Greeks who were known for proving and axioms. They pointed out that proof is what Mathematics gives strength. Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician, transformed Math as a tool of counting to analytical Mathematics we have today. He elaborated how the universe was built from numbers. Plato, a philosopher, was enraptured by Pythagorean world view. He saw geometry as the key to knowing everything in the universe. Euclid, on the other hand, saw mathematical revelations in Greece. He was known for his Euclid geometry and said that line can be drawn between two points. Archimedes was known for polygons, solid and gravity. He captured new shapes from shapes that we already understand. Hypatia, a Roman and the only girl given credit in the first part of the documentary, also contributed something relevant for Mathematics. These people, from Egyptians to Romans, became the world’s earliest mathematicians who gave a solid foundation for Mathematics to be viewed not just a mere subject but an important concept explaining everything about architecture, time, shapes and universe as a whole.

            How the people viewed Math today is relatively different with how the ancient people viewed Math in their time. If we come to look at it, ancient people valued Math like how they value their life. They really took time to discover and learn new things in connection to Math and made significant discoveries that became useful in the present day. In a sense, if we come to understand the concepts behind the discovery of everything in the universe, we can see patterns that would connect to technology and technology to Mathematics. Mathematics as a universal language speaks of how numbers, shapes, lines, and patterns become relevant in the understanding of basic concepts of living. Without math, we wouldn’t know what day it is today, what time it is, or even what year we are now. We will not even know how many units we are taking up and we will not be able to locate how far our houses would be from this school. In my own point of view, the documentary opened up a lot of possibilities for people to appreciate Mathematics. It helped me escalate my expectations to Mathematics and become more interested in learning a lot of things concerning the world and the things that surrounds me. The documentary became an eye-opener for me to understand the advantages and the benefits that Mathematics has given me. My view of Math as a subject full of head-aching numbers became a subject worth studying and worthy to be learned for more possible discoveries in the future. I became indebted to the mathematicians who looked through the wonders of every possible thing around us. I can say that I may not be a math lover but I really am thankful for the discoveries that math unlocked, that the questions in my head were answered by it.