Conception of a Monster

                I admit mathematics is one of the most important concepts ever conceived by mankind. Everything deemed as man-made can be attributed to math, maybe even our survival as a species was made possible by math. I truly, completely, with-all-my-heart believe that math is in itself a good thing. However everything has a dark side, in this case, the life sucking… soul crushing… mind blowing entity that all students must face, MATH CLASSES (no offense to those who actually enjoy it). 

             My sentiments are perfectly reflected by the documentary “The Story of Maths”.  Overall its boring, but as students of Math 1 - J, we are required to give the film a chance even if the extremely dull aura it emanates makes the audience expect the worst. The film starts with the typical nerdy narrator, in this one with added age and drama (corny statements and effects). The narrator named Marc or Marcus Something Something tries to uncover the humble beginnings of today’s math… dum, dum duh! Math actually started as basic counting used in Egypt. I find it weird that grade-schoolers today could easily beat any of their great scholars. Anyway, the story continues with some examples that showcase Ancient Egypt’s “mathematical brilliance!”. I agree that the hieroglyphs and numerical system were interesting, but for the bread distribution and flood calendar thingy, not really. I mean, if I was somehow able to go back to that time I could probably manipulate them into thinking I was a god (Kneel before me or I’ll flood your rivers in heel bone-heel bone-staff-staff days from now!!!). And then…

                …BOOM! I awaken from my short and shallow slumber. And old Marc is already in Babylonia getting beaten in some kind of board game. From what I can deduce, the Babylonians have further advanced mathematics, wherein they actually integrated it into their learning system. A good thing from this period is that the tablets that survived imply that math (specifically geometry) problems were taught for general education or academics. Personally, I think that this is also the birth of the evil of math, solving problems whose answers don’t really matter too much (is it really practical to know the area/ of shapes within shapes, I don’t think so). Yes, the circles-within-the-square-babylonian-tablet is the ancestral cause to our sufferings during high school and even now in college. They even invented the number that we dread to see in our papers, ZERO. So as not to hate the Babylonians too much, just think about how their numerical system gave rise to the current second to minute system(nope, still hate them).

                Unfortunately I took a bathroom break during the next part of the film. I didn’t really understand much after I returned, therefore I’ll skip ahead to the Greek side of the story of maths. I actually like Greek stories, so full of drama and weird and stupid characters.  And even in something as boring as the origin of math, the Greeks still give us something to laugh about… Plato the Stupid and Genius Mathematician! This part of the film had the most terms and concepts, so I couldn’t completely follow the flow of the story. As a result I didn’t understand many of what Mr. Marc SS was trying to convey. One thing understood though is that the math developed by the Greeks are still applicable to even our current standards for mathematics.

                Conclusion Time! What I obviously understood from the film, was that math started due to the needs of society, it was inherently for practical uses (just the way I like it). Eventually it became more and more diverse in its use and practice, even reaching the level of WAY OF LIFE (like for Team Pythagoras). This part I don’t really like, it has caused me several problems. On the other hand, without this branching out, society may have developed differently. Science and technology may not have been as advanced as it is today. In line with this we can actually attribute everything around us to math. This just shows how important math really is, without it we wouldn’t even have computers, games, cellphones, etc. In a way, we owe all our modern day FUN to those old nerdy OCD people of ancient civilizations. And so… I thank you old people for conceiving such a helpful pain in the butt named MATH