THE BEGINNING AFTER AN END

Most people thought that endings are always sad and heartbreaking because they're always associated with sacrificing, giving up and good-byes. What they don't know is that after every ends, there lies a new beginning to look forward to. This is what the fourth installment of The Story of Maths, entitled To Infinity and Beyond, is all about.

In this fourth episode, mathematics has become a quest of seeking answers to every problems and those unsolved problems make up today's math. Although this would be the last episode, Marcus Du Sautoy reveals us these unsolved mathematical problems that, up until now, still brought challenge to every aspiring mathematicians.

Du Sautoy introduced David Hilbert and his famous works first. Hilbert was known as the

mathematician who set out 23 most important problems that mathematicians should solve. This became the agenda and definition of the 20^th century maths.

In Hanna, East Germany, Hilbert's first problem was originated. This is also where another famous mathematician lived. He was Georg Cantor who was the first person to understand infinity and gave it mathematical precision. Cantor believed that there are many types of infinities. One of which is the infinity of fractions which is greater than the infinity of whole numbers. He was also responsible to the rise of Continuum Hypothesis in which he gave mathematics a new way to count.

Du Sautoy also mentioned Henri Poincare who became the leading light of mathematics and was entitled as the jack of all trades. Poincare was also known for his work and successive approximations of the orbits concerning if the solar system will continue turning like clockwork or will it fly off. Unfortunately, Poincare wasn't able to solve this problem thus Chaos theory emerged.

Next, Du Sautoy went to the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg in Russi which is said to be famous for its historical problems in mathematics wherein one must find a route in which one only crosses each bridge once. Many mathematicians had tried to solve this baffling puzzle and eventually, one had succeeded. This was Leonard Eular who said that there was no possible solution for the said problem in which you can cross every bridge and not cross one of them twice. Thus, a new problem on geometry of position arose. This was called Topology.

Next stop is St. Petersburg in which Du Sautoy discussed Poincare’s work on the principle of “bendy geometry” and how he developed topology into a new way of looking at shapes. This gave way to Poincare Conjecture which was a topological problem. This certain problem was solved by Grogori Perelman who looked at the dynamics of how shapes can flow. He shows that he solves mathematical problems not for the sake of money but because he gets stirred up at proving theorems.

Du Sautoy next went to Gottingen, Germany, in where David Hilbert was a mathematical star for his notable works. He became known for his Hilbert Space and Hilbert Inequality. He also revealed how to divide equations into a finite set creating a more abstract way of looking at mathematics. He really believed that a person with mathematical skills should do mathematics. For him, mathematics was a universal language that is unravels the truths of the universe.

Du Sautoy next went to Viena where another great mathematician that crashed Hilbert's dream. Viena was known for putting uncertainty in the very core of mathematics. Viena wanted to find logical solutions to all of mathematics but he got an unexpected results and proved the exact opposite. He said that there are mathematical statements which are true yet they can't be proved.

Paul Colhen was one of the many people who were greatly influenced by Godel. Thus, Colhen made a new way of solving problems. Mathematics is not sexist. It does not only favor males but also females. This is proved by a great female mathematician who became the first female professor of mathematics at Stockholm University. She was Sofia Kovalevskaya. Another great female mathematician was said to be the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society. Her name was Julia Robinson. She, with the help of her colleagues, developed the Robinson’s Hypothesis.

Yuri Matiyasevich was a male mathematician who was one to present great theorems and conjectures. His latest work was the Riemann Hypothesis. He was also known to solve Hilbert's tenth problem. We also have Evariste Galois who refined the language of mathematics and saw it as a study of structure. He also used geometry to solve equations, which was picked up by Andre Wiel, and developed algebraic geometry. This led to the combination of the number theorem, algebra, geometry and topology to solve even more equations.

Du Sautoy, who was also a mathematician himself, went back to his comprehensive school and inspired the students there. He greatly believes mathematicians are pattern searchers. He called those people who use logic to understand the patterns and structures all around us as mathematicians and talked how mathematics became an important aspect in our life as it is connected to everything we do.

This last episode of The Story of Maths tells us that although Marcus Du Sautoy puts an end in his journey on revealing the mysteries of maths, we still have our OWN journey to discover this amazing discipline called mathematics. This documentary does not force us to be mathematicians like those people mentioned throughout the journey but rather encourages each one of us to be mathematicians in a simple way that appreciates mathematics not only as a subject but as an important ingredient that spices up our lives.

“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don't really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren't really an ending; some things are never-ending.” - C. JoyBell C.