THE STORY OF MATHulog:

Language of the Classroom

 (Insert British accent) “From measuring time... navigating the world… I’m Marcus Sautoy….. This is The Story of Maths… blah, blah, blah...” The rest was blurred. I was already in the deep abyss of a Math-free wonderland. Yes, I was doing what I’m best at, Mathulog. I was asleep the entire time. Stop making that judgy face. Can you blame me? I’m just a weak human being. I know I’m wrong. Don’t worry. I had to suffer the consequence afterwards. Instead of doing my daily routine of watching Vampire Diaries during Fridays, I had to watch the second episode of Story of Maths. Torture.  I can’t doze to sleep again. Weapons ready: Pencil check, paper check, coffee check, and pain reliever check. I’m ready. After five minutes, back to my Math-free wonderland again. Just kidding! Honestly, I kinda enjoyed it already compared to the first episode of the documentary. It’s more interesting because the countries tackled were China, India, and the Islamic empires which were in Asia; thus, making these places much more familiar to me. First stop, China.

Welcome to the Middle Kingdom. A great part of China was shaped by Mathematics. A proof was the magnificent structure of the Great Wall. As always, Math emerged from a certain need even if that need seems peculiar. An emperor of China ordered his advisers which were both astronomers and mathematicians to come up with a schedule that would able him to have sex with 121 women in just 15 days wherein the moon is full. This had something to do with the Ying and yang. Math was never been this fun. The advisers found a way through having the geometrical progress. Math had a great impact to the emperor, from his very personal life to running the state. A lot of Chinese were fond, no, more of fascinated and addicted to Math. Solving equations were their past time. Maybe that’s why they made the magic square. Even the notorious politician, Qin Jiushao, had a great contribution in finding numerical solutions to polynomial equations and geometry. China’s number system was base 10. They had no symbol for zero, but they have a concept of decimal place value system. The Chinese believed that numbers had mystical powers, lucky and unlucky. Chinese are stereotyped to be math wizards. Well, it makes sense now. China was not much credited for their contributions to the development of Math. They were even the first to come up with concepts similar to Friedrich, Prince of Math, and Newton in the west.

India changed Math forever. The most famous contributions of India were the Hindu numerals, zero, 1+0 concept, infinity, negative values, sin function in trigonometry, and value of pi. The Hindu numerals inspired the numbers that we are using today. It is the universal language of Math. Indians came up with zero with the help of their religion, the concept of being born from nothingness.  Zero revolutionized Mathematics. Through zero, calculations and astronomical large numbers were easier to study. 1+0=1, 1-0=1, 1x0=0, are the easiest calculations in our life, but this wouldn’t be possible without Brahmagupta. How about 1/0? The concept of infinity emerged with this. Then, negative numbers came. They seem impractical, but were really useful especially in debts. Bramagutpa discovered the formula which generalizes the Heron’s formula of the area of the triangle. The ancient Greeks sin functions are limited. Indians expand it to much farther angle. This is used in architecture, engineering, surveying the seas and lands, and even exploring the solar system. Mathematicians are OC. They want things to be in exact values unlike engineers that approximation is enough. The true value of Pi was discovered in 16^th century in India, Germany did in 17^th. Wow, the East rules indeed.

The Koran states that knowledge is important. With this, the Islamic Empires have a vibrant intellectual culture. Arabs paved way for the history of Math to be known. They studied the different discoveries of Math and translated it. They developed the Hind numerals. That’s why it is now called Hindu-Arabic numerals. This propelled the development of math later on.  Calculations are now easier without lengthy drawings. Arabs were also innovators. They have big contributions in algebra, calculations with restoration or reduction. It is used in computer programming. It was a huge breakthrough. The Chinese and Indians developed solutions for specific problems meanwhile the Arabs handle general mathematical problems. A Persian poet mathematician came up with arithmetic of poems. The Arabs kind of focused on algebra, the grammar of math.

During this time of discoveries in the East, Europe was having its Dark Ages. It took years for the west to rise again. Renaissance happened. In Italy, a sailor’s son, Leonardo of Pisa or Fibonacci introduced the Hindu-Arabic Numerals to Europe. Officials were because this new way of writing numbers are much easier. They were afraid a shift of power would happen. However, common sense prevailed. With this new numerals, it’s much easier for mathematicians and merchants now especially in Florence, the center of trade. Fibonacci discovered the arithmetic patterns in nature like in the flowers, pineapple, and snail’s shell which is called Fibonacci too in honor of him. An unlikely Mathematician would crack the solution for solving one type of a cubic equation. Tartgalia have a speech defect, he was known when he won in Bologna University Math competition. It was like fencing duels between mathematicians. Tartgalia was deceived by Cardano. He stole Tartgalia ideas and published it under his name. Cardano’s servant, Ferraris developed quadratic equations through studying Tartgalia’s work. It ended well for Cardano and Ferraris; however for Tartgalia, he died unknown. Even today, he’s own cubic equation formula is called Cardano formula.

This is the untold story of the east that transformed the west.

Today, Mathematics is at its finest. After looking back at its history, I’m both amazed and grateful. I’ve never thought Math would interest me this way.  God planned out things, the culture, people, and place, in a way that each discovery would be possible. Things will not be the same today if not for the brilliant, creative, and patient artists of math. I hope each Math class is not just an opportunity to Mathulog, but to have chance to discover how Math really makes sense of the impossible.