“Mathematics
is the queen of the sciences and number theory is the queen of Mathematics.”
–Gauss
As du Sautoy proceeded to the next
chapter of his mathematical expedition, the next episode of the movie “The
Story of Maths” entitled “The Frontiers of Space” unfolded. In this episode, he
explored the ascent of a new mathematical power in place of the Middle East, which
is Europe. It was in this era wherein the transformation of mathematical ideas
were at its peak, comprising most of its revolutionary history. The huge turn
of perception regarding geometrical objects- from being fixed to being motile-
changed the face of mathematics and brought about a wave of new mathematical
advances.
Marcus du Sautoy toured the lands of
Europe as he uncovered one by one the biography of the greatest mathematicians
we had ever known. His first stop was France where the great mathematician,
physicist and philosopher at the same time originated. I think all of us encountered the Cartesian
plane and know about Rene Descartes, but don’t you know that all of his
mathematical ideas came out while he was on his meditative state and that is
when he was in the comforts of his bed? It was really staggering to know that
he lied in his bed till late in the mornings just for the sake of figuring out
new mathematical concepts, maybe not so valued that time but later on, appeared
to be a vital basis of our analytical geometry. In that case, curved lines can
already be described as equations. But contrary to his great works, Descartes
did not have an equally great character and was not the congenial type of
person.
Next, du Sautoy took a peek on the
life of Pierre Fermat, who became famous for his properties of prime numbers
and his Last Theorem. One of his theorems became the foundation for the codes that
protect credit card transactions on the internet. Imagine how far mathematics
goes.
As du Sautoy left France, he then jumps
to London, England where a sad truth faced him. A great mathematician was known
not for his mathematical contributions but only for his sciences. He digs deeper
on the life of that man which happened to be Isaac Newton. A sad realization also
occurred to me as I realized that me myself only knew a little about Newton,
which was limited to his third laws of motion and gravity (falling of apple),
when in fact, I should appreciate his contributions most especially in
calculus- both differential and integral. In the movie, I saw how calculus
worked not only for engineers but even on our very own means of transportation.
Indeed, this discovery shifted math to a new dimension.
On the other hand and independent
of Newton, the German mathematician and philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,
developed his very own infinitesimal calculus. Although he gained many bashers because
of that and was even accused of plagiarizing Newton’s works, it never hindered
him to campaign for his own concepts, making him gain more followers and
overshadow Newton when it came to calculus. I realized in that part of the
movie that publicity (just the good and not the bad), and generosity work in
order to be more recognized. Say for instance, Newton’s character of keeping
his concepts to his own and not sharing his ideas made him not that evenly
popular or even far less popular than that of Leibniz, although he came first.
Moving on to Netherlands, du Sautoy
tackled a bit about Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss, who I merely knew only for his principles
in fluid mechanics in physics. He came out to be a great mathematician too, and
for that I was astounded to find out that he was the pioneer of probability and
statistics, a subject I’m taking up this semester.
Leonhard Euler, another Swiss
mathematician, who was an expert in many fields of maths and sciences, solved
the Basel problem, pi squared over 6. Basel was the name of the town where
Euler lived as well as the Bernoulli family who left this problem unsolved. He
was also proclaimed as the father of topology or bendy geometry.
There was a break on the series of
Swiss mathematicians as another German mathematician took the limelight of
mathematics as I may say it is, as for inventing modular arithmetic at the age
of 24 as a new way of handling equations, and was responsible for the
explanations for the distribution of prime numbers. He was Karl Friedrich
Gauss.
Lastly, the light was focused to
Bernhard Riemann who also contributed to the modern number theory and
differential geometry.
All of these successive mathematical
concepts and theories truly gave significance to what is mathematics. They are
responsible for the continuation of development on physics, relativity,
calculus and technology.
This episode of the movie revealed
many untold facts that will surely hook any viewer on the film. The only part
wherein I could suggest improvement on the film was the sound effects in some
scenes that were not well-coordinated and were dull on the part of the
audience. Generally, the film was wonderful and I hope more will take the ride
in revisiting the evolution of mathematics. Two-thumbs up for the ones who made
this episode possible!
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