Story of Maths (Part 1):

One Sided Love

“Study me as much as you like, you will never know me. For I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be. Put yourself behind my eyes, and see me as i see myself. Because I have chosen to dwell in a place you can’t see.” –Rumi

Have you ever tried loving someone so much yet he/she doesn’t love you back? If you do, welcome to the club, and that my friend is called one sided love. It’s even worse than being friendzone. If you’re thinking I’m lovesick, you’re wrong. Talking about a guy? You’re wrong again. I’m talking about Math. I love Math, but it hates me. Why does even Math exist? It just breaks my heart, our hearts over and over again. Cruel people invented it. I’m going to find out the evil roots of Math by knowing its history through the Story of Maths.

“Over thousands of years, societies all over the world have found one discipline above all others; your certain knowledge about the underlying realities of the physical world, and that discipline is Mathematics,” quoted from Mathematics Professor Marcus du sautoy of University of Oxford in The Story of Maths by BBC. Story of Maths is a four part documentary series about the evolution of Mathematics. The first episode is entitled The Language of the Universe. In this episode, Sautoy took part in a journey that brought him and us through the first civilizations of the world: Egypt, Babylonia, and Greece.

Egypt was the first trailblazer of Mathematics. Mathematics emerged from a necessity, not just mere boredom, in Egypt during 6000 B.C. Egyptians recorded the lunar phases to predict when would the Nile River would flood. This was used in both agricultural and religious reasons. Egyptians used their body parts like palm, feet, and elbow as measuring units. A decimal numeric system was developed based on our ten fingers. They used different symbols for this. However, there was no concept of place value. So, it was tiring to write big numbers. The Rhind Papyrus showed that the Egyptains engaged in arithmetic and geometry. Their multiplication or division may be longer, but the concpet began with it. Fractionwas made for practical trading problems was symbolized by the eyes of Hirus.  Egyptians almost found the true value of pi. The greatest proof of Math innovation of Egypt is the pyramids. It follows the 3-4-5 right traingle. How did the ancient people bulid such magnificent structure?

Same with the Egyptians, Babylonians engage in Math because of bureaucratic needs, measurements of lands and taxation. Their numerical value was base 60. It inspired the base 60 time and angles of circle nowadays. Babylonians had a concept of zero but used it just as a placeholder than a number. The idea and quadratic equations were developed for lands. Geometric shapes were used for structures, but later on extend to calculating areas and volumes of shapes. There was even a controversy that Babylonians first conceptualize the Pythagorean Triples. Until now scholars are studying it through the Plimpton 322 day tablet.

The Greeks were well-known as great conquerors. As conquerors, they adapted the different Mathematical developments of Egypt and Babylonia and developed it. However, they made their own history. There were a lot of brilliant thinkers in Greece. First were Pythagoras and his followers that developed the Pythagorean Theorem, Plato and his Academy, Euclid, Archimedes, and Hypatia. Greece was more on based on geometry. Even the Academy of Plato displayed, “No ignorant of Geometry will enter here.” The Egyptians and Babylonians used inductive reasoning to prove their study, for the Greeks, they used proving theories. And that is when proving began.

            As the series went deeper, we could see the development of Math from a mere solution for a need to a tool of innovation. What we have today is the result of the brilliant minds that built the foundations of Mathematics. The documentary was very informative. Facts were laid out clearly. Visual effects were really helpful in catching the attention and explaining things that were hard to understand. There were only two points for development for me. First, the episode was lengthy. It was better to cut it to 40 minutes, and have more episodes. Lastly, Prof. Sautoy is British. Subtitles would be really helpful, so that we could clearly understand him. It was like chasing after what he’s saying. Over all, the documentary was eye opening with its surprising facts about the history of my love, Mathematics.

For the love of Math! Math wasn’t created as a torturing device. Math was developed to make lives easier. It may seem blurry now, but later on maybe Math and I will get along already. I’ll go an extra mile. Even if I have to sacrifice my nights, my rest just to know Math better, I will do it. Love is about sacrifices.