Behind Its Beuty and Elegance

Europe is a large continent with numerous different countries and cultures to offer. For instance, they have art, wine, restaurants and the remarkable Eiffel Tower in France, fine food, elegance, music, culture and the outstanding Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, Daniel Radcliffe in England, and many more. But amidst these things, another facet of Europe had been revealed. This is its aesthetic bond with Mathematics.

In the third episode of The Story of Maths, entitled The Frontiers of Space, it showed how Mathematics was in Europe. The main thought of this trip is to understand geometry and mathematics of objects in motion. It involved great artists who then became notable mathematicians. We will know them as we go through our journey in the place of beauty and elegance, Europe.

Marcus du Sautoy's voyage started in Northern Italy, specifically in the town of Albino. In this little town, mathematics and perspective were used by artists and architects to ameliorate their arts and works. One of them is Pierro Dela Francesca. The perspective was meant to illustrate 3D in a 2D canvass and with the aid of mathematics, it was possible.

He then visited a village, called Descartes, found in the central France. It was named after René Descartes who is a great mathematician, philosopher and theoretical physicist who first conceptualized of linking algebra and geometry. He made formulas into which a curve can be described by an equation and this had changed mathematics forever.

In the 17^th cetury, mathematics and religion were inseparable. Many mathematicians had a great belief in God. They loved math as how much they loved God. One of these is Marin Mersene, who known for his discoveries in prime numbers. He also publicized another mathematical work concerning on the properties of numbers of a person who rivaled Descartes of being the greatest mathematician of his time. He was Pierre Fermat.

In Bordeaux de la man near Toulouse, France, Du Sautoy's found Pierre Fermat's greatest contributions. These includes the modern number theory, the Last Theorem, theorem on prime numbers and the Little Theorem which are appreciated through fun puzzling games.

Next important person is the one who developed calculus which is a great breakthrough in understanding the behavior of moving objects. This person was Isaac Newton in England, who was known for the discovery of gravity. Then comes Gottfried Leibniz who has a same idea as Newton about calculus. He was one of those who invented first practical calculating machines that worked on the Binary System.

In Basel, Switzerland, the Bernoulli's family was also known to produce outstanding mathematicians. Another big names in mathematics are Leonard Eular, the Father of Topology or “bend-geometry” and he is also known for someone who discovered the use of the symbol pi, e and I. He also devised a new system of weights and and measures, developed a new theory of music and was entitled by Du Sautoy as “Mozart of Maths”. Then followed by Carl Friedrich Gauss who is described as the Prince of Mathematics. He was known in Gottingen, Germany for his discoveries on patterns of numbers, construction of figures with 17 sides, theory of elliptic forces and imaginary numbers. Other great persons were Joseph Fourier (work on sound waves), Janos Bolyai ( imaginary geometries or hyperbolic geometry) and Bernhard Riemann ( foundations of geometry).

Indeed, Europe was one of the homes of great mathematicians. Europe was way better because of the many discoveries on mathematics. This movie revealed a “new” Europe. This continent is not all about those splendid structures, admired masterpieces and mouth-watering food but a place which was entitled with beauty and elegance because of mathematics. We again attain another and better appreciation for Mathematics, another reason to love it.