Mathematics as we know today involves simple arithmetic
problems and complicated problems that I don't even understand the purpose of
it. We use mathematics to solve our change when we pay our ikot, habal habal or
commonly known as single and princess' fares. The story of maths showed as the
history and roots of our numerical system and who to blame in my suffering to
pass my mathematics subjects.
In ancient Egypt, people used patterns in observing when
the nile river will overflow or cause flood because when the river floods,
their crops will be affected and damaged. By observing the pattern of the
flooding of the nile, they will know when to plant and harvest their crops.
Slavery is one of the trending activities in ancient Egypt. In a group of five
slaves, they were given three loaves of bread thus the birth of fractions
arose. Slaves treat each other equally because they divide their food equally
without one getting more than the other. One of the greatest inventions that
humans made was the Pyramids of the Egyptians. During their time there were no
tools that the present engineers use today, there were no building codes and
the principles of physics were not yet established. Those pyramids were built
by hand, tested by nature and survived the curse of time.
The Babylonians comes second in line. Their mathematics
evolved from solving daily life problems. The Babylonians were taught in school
by teachers. Babylonians have their measurement of time which is divisible by
sixty. They also have a value of zero and they represent zero by just leaving a
blank which means nothing. Babylonians uses clay tablets to write their
calculations. These clay tablets carry evidences of the great work of mathematics
in Babylonia.
The Greeks adapted the mathematics of the Babylonians and
improved it. They showed us the importance of shapes thus having the foundation
of geometry. Pythagoras devised the pythagorean theorem in order to solve the
values of the angles and the lengths of the sides of a right triangle. Great
greek philosophers like Plato, Euclid and Aristotle were also involved in the
development of mathematics. Different structures in Ancient Greece involved
mathematics to succesfully and precisely build their structures.
One interesting fun fact in the different civilizations is
the symbols that they used in representing their numbers. Their symbol depends
on their culture and way of living.
Mathematics simplifies everything and it helps you understand
everything present in the surface of the Earth.
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