Seeing Through Revolving Doors

What do you think would people respond when asked about mathematics? Would they tell you the words “boring”, “uninteresting”, or even “the most difficult subject”? Well, well, I bet many will do so. Of course, who would want to surround his/herself numbers and some out-of-the-world problems? Maybe you’re one of them. But what if I tell you Mathematics isn't just about computations and kicking some butts. Would you still give math a second chance? Well, let me take you to the helms of its nascence.

In the search for the history of mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy traveled Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece to unearth fragments of information regarding of how significant and fundamental Mathematics has evolved to what it is today.

Having his first kick off in Egypt, du Sautoy discovered how the ancient Egyptians used the system of numbers and developed notation. They also used fractions and learned the golden ratio of 3, 4, and 5 to measure right triangles. But their most significant contribution to Math is their approximation of pi. In this period, Math was used only by Egyptians to solve simple problems as well as to predict the flooding of the Nile.

            

         While in his expedition to Mesopotamia, he uncovered that the early Babylonians used a base 60- system (unlike the Egyptians who used a base-10 system) that became our basis to tell the time today. Although the Babylonians discovered the system of angular measurement, their concept to express things of no value left the world the impression of creating the zero symbol to represent nothingness. Their passion in Mathematics paved its way to advance from just simple counting to a more logical one. Hence, they already used quadratic equations to solve problems regarding land.

            

        And for the latter part, he finally sailed to Greece where power of proof became the strength of Mathematics; he then came across to the contributions of some of the world’s greatest Mathematicians and how their contributions transformed the simple way of counting into an analytic one. Pythagoras for example, developed the properties of right triangles and discovered irrational numbers. Plato on the other hand, discovered geometry. Euclid wrote the elements and Archimedes, on his unwavering passion to Mathematics discovered polygons, solids and produced formulas to calculate regular shapes.

             

         “The Story of Maths” combined mathematics and world history that together produced an innovative documentary to help average people who have no strong foundation in math (like me) appreciate and as well found the video informative. The video tells us the shift of the headway of Mathematics taken by each step from different periods of time and civilizations. From there you can simply trace back history and understand how math was transformed from just a counting tool to a more sophisticated yet complicated one.

So indeed this one’s a benefit tool to students and people who wished to increase their foundation in math to learn and engage more to this subject that many thought as impossible.

You see, everything in this world started from scratch. The key to appreciate something is to understand its roots. It’s just learning history. You will never appreciate a certain object without realizing how great its story has been.