The Creation of ‘the Reason’

                        There are two ways a day of a person could end: either good or bad. Having a bad one is mainly due to a miscalculation of the physical/material world.  Let’s say you were not able to budget your allowance properly which resulted to you not eating. Consequently you starve making your day miserable.  

Throughout history, we have been trying to connect with our physical world. Understanding this one discipline, we all know as Mathematics, would abet us conquer the obstacles (like the simple budget problems) that our physical environment bequeaths us. This is the reason why for years we were able to live and survive in our physical world.

In order to appreciate how we endeavored to discover the rules and patterns of mathematics so we could exist in our surroundings, a video was made by BBC entitled “The Story of Maths -The Language of the Universe.” This is their first episode of three that would hopefully be an eye-opener for viewers.

The adventure of the host, Marcus du Sautoy, in this episode focused on three ancient civilizations— the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Greeks— who were the founders of maths.

First he went to Egypt. Egyptians were innovative. They could split nine loaves of bread between 10 people. They work out the same problem but with different numbers in order to find a solution for it. Egyptians record patterns of the seasons and, in particular, the flooding of the Nile river which gave them the facts on when they harvest their crops. They use the primitive way of recording it—using stones and writing on a wall. In addition, they solve practical problems such as land area for taxation. The use of fingers on hands (unusual method for multiplication and division), binary numbers, fractions and solid shapes were also some of their contributions to mathematics.

Marcus travelled next to Babylon. There he discovered that the way we tell time nowadays is based on the Babylonian 60 base number system (60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour). In order to have a symbol for nothing in math, they made number zero. Most of the mathematical records are preserved on clay tablets that were the tasks/assignments of children in school. He also found out that Babylonians used quadratic equations to measure their land.

His last stop was Greece. For Marcus, the Greeks are the true founders of maths. They invented proof which opened “a gulf between sciences” and never changed until now. Some of their great mathematicians including Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras were recognized for transforming mathematics from a tool for counting into the analytical subject that we know now. I knew here that the Greeks discovered my favorite math subject which is Geometry and I will be forever grateful to them.

The film was not what I expected it to be. I thought it was boring because it’s a documentary. Even though I could not understand what he’s saying at times, Marcus de Sautoy really made me feel like I’m there with his enthusiasm. His facial expression sometimes is funny. The graphics were terrible though. It made me concentrate more on the visuals in agony rather than the host’s narrations.

There was a sneak peak shown and for the next episode they’re going east! I’m excited to know the contributions of China and how they also split their bread.