On Board: A Mathematical Trip to the East

“Mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.” – Galileo Galelei

I really looked forward in seeing the second episode of The Story of Maths. From the first episode that showed the brilliance of ancient civilizations, we have travelled to the East to search for the genius that made our current systems of mathematics possible.

The first stop of the Eastern trip was China, where it was presented that the heart of its greatest architecture, the Great Wall of China, was mathematics. The Chinese also developed effective counting measures, which are not only used in business, but their strong beliefs in the power of numbers also, pushed them to uncover its mystery more. What I can’t forget about it is the amazing fact that the Emperor is scheduled to mate more than 80 women, including his wife. And take note, it follows a certain mathematical sequence which is apt for the Empress to mate with him when the full moon is near. Imagine that! I mean, isn’t it tiring for the Emperor to do those?

Next stop: India. I always fascinated on how India became such a great place to have proper education. Indians excel in nearly all academic areas, especially mathematics. In the East, they were the first to give the face of the value of nothingness, zero. They also first introduced the concept of infinity and negative numbers. In fact, they are the sources of us having our current numerical figures: the Hindu-Arabic numerals.

These ideas which first developed in the East were not quite appreciated since the knowledge implanted to the world is that the West was the pioneers of mathematics. Take for example the creator of the famous Fibonacci sequence, Leonardo Fibonacci. This concept of mathematics was from the Middle East where the concept of algebra was furnished. It was not only them that had interest on math, but the Eastern people as well, who eventually progressed in history.