Mathematics of the East

Mathematics is very essential to life, without it then our lives may not have been like this. Knowing the history of math is somewhat important since knowing where it came from and how it evolved, we may understand the nature of mathematics. For me, mathematics have been the least appreciated subject for some students since they’ve considered it as a burden to their lives as a student, from understanding the nature of mathematics we may be able to appreciate mathematics as it is. We have finished watching the second instalment of the Story of Maths and from there new information has been introduced to us. In first instalment of the Story of Maths, it talked about mainly on how the ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece created the basic language of number and calculations. Generally, the first instalment is about how the West ventured the development of mathematics through time. In the second instalment, it was all about the untold story of mathematics of the East that has transformed the East and gave birth to the modern world.

  The Great Wall of China is an amazing feat of engineering built for the protection of the growing empire of China. As soon as they started building, the ancient Chinese realised they had to make calculations about distances, angles of elevation and amounts of material. From there, it inspired some very clever mathematics to help build Imperial China. Chinese have also invented a simple number system which laid the foundations for the way we count today and also they have started the what we call a decimal place-value system that Is very similar to the one we use today. Chinese have also used symbols to denote different place values. They didn’t have a symbol for zero, they would use empty spaces to represent zero. Ancient china was so fascinated with numbers and has also brought impact to their culture. They were also drawn to patterns in numbers, developing their own early version of Sudoku that they called as magic squares. Mathematics also played a vital role in the running of the emperor’s court. The calendar and the movement of planets were the utmost importance to the emperor that influenced his decisions, he also ran his affairs with mathematical precision. Ancient China was a growing empire with a strict legal code, widespread taxation and a standardised system of weights, measures and money that they needed civil servants that is competent in mathematics. To educate these civil servants was a mathematical textbook, with compilation of 246 problems and centrally provided on how to solve equations. Ancient Chinese have that certain method of solving equations that extraordinarily didn’t appear in the West until the beginning of the 19^th century. In 1809, while analysing a rock called Pallas in the asteroid belt, Carl Friedrich Gauss, who would become known as the prince of mathematics, rediscovered that certain method. The Chinese were to go on to solve even more complicated equations and arrived to what known as the Chinese remainder theorem. The golden age of Chinese maths had arrived, and its most important mathematician was called Qin Jiushao. Qin Jiushao started trying to solve equations that eventually grew out of trying to measure the world around us. Quadratic equations involve numbers that are squared. Ancient Mesopotamians had already realised that these equations were perfect for measuring 2D shapes. However, Qin was more interested in cubic equations that were perfect for 3D shapes, but he couldn’t just derive the exact solution.

 India’s first mathematical gift lay in the world of number, the Indians had discovered the mathematical benefits of the decimal place-value system. Indians perfected and refined the number system they’ve used that developed to what we call a universal language. In addition, Indians were the one to introduce zero as a number. The reason for this could be their culture, for they believe the concept of nothingness and eternity. Brahmagupta proved some of the properties of zero: one plus zero equals one, one minus zero equals one, one times zero equals zero but he had troubles when he tried to divide zero to one. But Bashkara had an idea on this that when one is divided by zero the answer would be infinity. Indians go further in their calculations, from there they recognised new sort of numbers-negative numbers. Indian mathematics was responsible for making new discoveries in the theory of trigonometry. Madhava recognised the number pi, which is one of the most important numbers in mathematics. Al-Khwarizmi introduced the Hindu-Arabic numerals and created a new mathematical language known as algebra. Khayyam was devoted to finding the general method to solve cubic equations but he failed to do so. In Italy, Tartaglia worked out on how to solve different sort of cubic equations, Cardano was so desperate to know the solution but Tartaglia had one condition-to never publish and keep it as a secret. But Cardano couldn’t resist discussing it to his student Ferrari that solved the quartic equation. Soon, Cardano published Tartaglia’s work together with Ferrari’s solution of the quartic and to this day the formula that solves cubic equation is known as Cardano’s formula. Therefore, that was the venture of China, India and the Arab world to mathematics.

   The venture for mathematics of the East have been greatly helpful to our generation today. They’ve recognized numbers or values that actually is really significant. Usually, they’re common concern is to use mathematics in their daily living and amazingly from there they’ve manage to discover mathematical philosophies which are of use until the present. They were really fascinated with mathematics that some have dedicated their lives for its welfare. Knowing the history of math have brought such impact to me that I somehow could say that mathematics should really be appreciated. Not for what had happened before then we might not meet negative numbers, zero and the like and we will know little about it. For some, mathematics has really been considered a burden but to others, especially our ancestors, mathematics mean life. Mathematics has brought such improvement to our very existence.