The Story of Maths: Genius of the East

The first installment of the Story of Maths talked about how Mathematics evolved and how it became the language of the universe. Basically, the cultures of the ancient civilizations created the language of the numbers. On its second installment, the documentary presented how Mathematics developed and flourished on the other side of the world.

            The host of the documentary, Du Sautoy, first took us to China. People laugh at the joke on how God made the heavens and the earth, while the rest of the world was made in China. We must accept, the joke is somehow true. Wherever we go, there are things that would always remind us of China. How this imperial country rose to power, however, was all because of Mathematics. See, the Great Wall of China would not be that great without Math. Calculations on distances, angles of elevation and the amount of materials were all equally measured and solved. The Tiananmen Square wouldn’t be called square without the equations on areas and all that.

            Chinese have a high regard for Math. They believe that numbers held a cosmic significance. Even the emperor asks astronomers, who are also mathematicians, to help him have sex with all 121 women. It’s unusual, however, the mathematicians found a way to do that through geometric progressions. And, although I don’t see the relationship in this analogy but Chinese look at odd numbers as males while even numbers as females.

            Du Sautoy then travelled to India. Like the Chinese, Indians knew the importance of the decimal place value system. We may never know how the Indians came up with their number system but we have to give them credit for they have developed the nine numerals that we use today. They introduced ‘zero’ to the world, as discovered on the inscription on the walls of their temples and forts. It is fascinating how they came up with the symbol zero, putting stones on the sand and removing the stone showing a circular shape. It shows how that something became nothing. It is important to note that the culture of Indians is the root of their Mathematical discoveries as the concept of infinity and nothingness are included and deemed valuable in their belief system.

            In the Middle East, on the other hand, a new empire began to rise. The scholars collected, translated and studied ancient texts and without them, we may not be able to know for ourselves what the Egyptians and Greeks have discovered. The scholars did not only study what they collected, they are also curious about Mathematics and made a contribution on their own. They were able to introduce to us algebra and solutions to cubic equations. Well, all thanks to them, students are having a hard time with Mathematics nowadays.

        Overall, the documentary was still informative and interesting. The musical score was quite exceptional, letting us not only see what each country is like but also letting us listen to the music and sound they had. However, there were some parts wherein the narration is not quite related to what is shown on the video.