Labyrinthine Justification from Paragons of Pacific's West

On the second book of this tale, it was written about great mathematical breakthroughs that the East have caused Western developments in mathematics to thrive. The phrases start with China and its Great Wall, a major feat in engineering. Chinese people have the same calculations we know today in school regarding decimal place value system. It was easy for them only to use rods, but writing down was their problem. They use elaborate symbols instead and they do not use zero so they have columns for ones, hundreds and thousands. Giant mathematical steps don’t stop them due to absence of zero. There is a legend about how the Magic was found and how it adds up to the same number vertically, horizontally and diagonally on a 3x3 square. With this simple puzzle, its concepts lead to greater mathematical patterns and higher mathematical powers. Geometric progression was known when the Yellow Emperor tried to make a schedule for all the women he has. Equations didn’t appear in the west until the beginning of the 19^th century. One of their great contributions is the Chinese remainder theorem, which is a fairly abstract mathematics. Cryptography was honed from the said theorem. By 13^th century, the golden age of Math was upon China. There is a man of Xiao, a fierce warrior interested in cubic equations, who tried to solve cubic equations but it wasn’t discovered until the 17^th century. He used methods up to powers of ten but only had the disadvantage of only coming up with approximate solutions; he could not get the exact formula.

There is a country southwest of china that changed the face of Math forever, India. Like the Chinese, they use place value. It was reported we didn’t know how they found their number system but we are sure they are the ancestors to the nine numerals we know today. However, another number was found to be used by Indians in 9^th century.  This strange new numeral is engraved in a wall within a small temple by central India. They were the first to manifest evidence on the use of zero. They transformed zero from a mere placeholder to a number in its own right, a number for calculations. This brilliant conceptual leap revolutionized mathematics. It was said that Indians start from stones in the sand, representing movement from something to nothing. During the 12^th century, an Indian mathematician named Gupta discovered a property of zero. When 1 is divided into smaller fractions, we get more pieces. So if we divide it to zero, we would have infinitely many pieces. He found that dividing 1 by zero is equivalent to infinity. The Indians further calculated from zero. This led to negative numbers, causing debts to occur in market places. The beauty of Indian mathematics is that they see negative numbers and zero as abstract entities, leading to explosion of mathematical ideas. They also knew problems for quadratic equations and that there are two solutions, one of them is negative. X and Y represent unknown notations, fundamentals theories for trigonometry and geometry were also learned in their ancient civilization. Also, they use sin functions to survey the land, navigate the seas and chart movements in space in observatories. They explore celestial bodies without leaving earth’s surface. Calculating at any angle became a challenge for finding sin functions. They also contribute in the Concept of infinity, where smaller fractions add up to 1. Math taught us that to articulate and manipulate infinite steps, you can get to your destination. They’re all about the infinite series and trigonometry connection, resulting to pi. Any measurements involving curves require pi, a precise value needed for engineers. A mathematician from India discovered the exact value of pi by subtracting 4 to the number when you divide 4 to three, add 4 divided by 5, subtract 4 divided by 7, add 4 divided by 9, subtract 4 divided by 11 and so on. Zigzagging on the number line is the pattern until exact point of pi was reached. Leibniz was recognized but it was actually in India. History is finally being rewritten with truthful light.

Teachings of Muhammad inspire Islamic empire during the7th century. In the heart of the empire lay a library, called House of Wisdom, subjects including astronomy, medicine, chemistry, geology and mathematics written in many ancient texts were collected. Scholars were not content with translating ancient works; they want to make their own mark. An exceptional mathematician named Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, a Persian scholar and director of House of Wisdom in Baghdad discovered that Hindu numerals speed up calculations. Now, we adopted them as Hindu-Arabic numerals. He also found algebra, calculation by reduction and grammar on how number works. Uniquely, he applied algebra to quadratic equations and express how this method works searching for a general formula suitable for any number involved. In 11^th century, a Persian mathematician traveled through Middle East. He is a celebrated poet and relates the rhymes to constructing a logical mathematical proof. Systematic analysis of cubic equation was pushed through but he can’t come up with a general cubic solution for a cubic equation. That quest is another big leap for the west, in Italy.

Eastern Math definitely made a great impact to European setting. Europe starts trade with the east. There is a book hugely influential for development of western mathematics. A man named Leonardo Fibonacci promoted a new number system, more open to forgery and easy to use which can empower masses over authorities. And yet, the new system spread. 0-9 was used in Fibonacci sequence. His sequence or numbers are nature’s blueprint. But perhaps the biggest climax there is for this story is that of the stamerrer, Tartaglia. He was the one who discovered all the solutions for all the cubic equations problems they have those earlier times. He even beat Fior in a popular mathematical competition they have those days. He was powerful with the knowledge he reaped out of the essence to prove the earlier mathematicians wrong that there can’t be a general formula to solve problems of equations with powers raised to three. In the end, he died penniless when he told his secrets to a certain Cardano who promised not to publish his findings and yet broke the oath anyway.

It’s always unfair how those people wanted recognition for themselves although they have their own set of histories. Maybe what’s truly heartbreaking is that paragons like Tartaglia and those unnamed Asians I didn’t catch to hear while watching the film are all significantly important people who revolutionized mathematics in many aspects in its vast complexities. These people cracked codes and discovered secrets the world inevitably needs always. Their lives are irretrievably lost until now. Their brilliant ideas arise from Pacific’s West way long before the Western cities took hold of such labyrinthine justification. They deserved every rightful claim to be etched in mathematical history.