Patterns to Language

Mathematics is used in making sense and is used to understand natural pattern. It paves the way for the powerful innovation and growth of this expanding world’s horizons. As the time passes by, maths became more complex as we demand solutions to the problems and creates logical systems that organize for today’s advanced scope of development.

In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians record the pattern and their observation like the flooding of the Nile which is vital to their agriculture and economy that leads to the augmentation of the counting system. They also use areas of the land for taxation purposes. The use of the body parts for measuring, like from the elbow to the fingertip is equivalent to one cubit, which lead to the evolution of units. Egyptians were able to solve problems quantitatively for everyday life like distributing the nine loaves equally to ten persons using fractions. By recording their history through Hieroglyphics and Papyrus, it seems that the early Egyptians were using decimal system using their fingers, icons/patterns in presenting large numbers and starting multiplying numbers in an unusual method.

Babylon is famous of their “60 base number system”, which became so functional, that after 4000 years, we still use it today in terms of time and degree of the circle. It seems that the way we tell the time was based on Babylonian mathematics- 60 minutes in one hour and 60 seconds in one minute. The 360 degree full circle that each degree is divided by 6o minutes and a minute is divided by 60 seconds is now used as a regular system for measurement. These observations that were recorded by Babylonians in ancient times lead to modern calculations. Contrast to ancient Egypt, Babylon uses a single stroke to represent a base 60 number and the birth of the quadratic equations was meant for solving areas of the land for irrigation purposes. The game backgammon which the people of Babylon played to kill boredom uses a dice to move and numbers to outwit opponent while using tactical mathematics.

Proving is the strength of mathematics. The Greek mathematician used the geometry to prove a certain mathematical ideas to be true. 2000 years passed, that proof was still used today.

Mathematics is used by ancient people since BCs. It was used in taxes, land areas, irrigation, games and religion. They used math as a language that played an important role on the development of each civilization. And by recording natural patterns, the raise of their discoveries in ancient times are still used, true and acts as the foundation in our modern world.

After watching the story maths, I can tell that these early mathematicians are truly the successors of the world history. Because of their love in mathematics, they opened the eye of the people to understand our environment using this. Without their simple breakthroughs about it that took place in history, our innovated world can never be as globally advanced and progressing as it is today.