The Story of Maths Part 2

The second part of the Story of Maths brought us to the eastern part of the world, specifically China, India, Islamic empire and Italy of Europe. According to Marcus du Sautoy, the narrator of the film that it was the “untold story of mathematics of the east that transformed the west and gave birth to the modern mathematics”

So, let’s start off with China. When we say China, the next thing that comes in our minds is the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was built to defend their territory from the Barbarians surrounding them.  But because of the vast territory of China they need to measure the distance from one place to another to connect the walls. Mathematics helped this wonder-of-the-world to calculate the distance. Chinese also, like other nations, have their own number system. Marcus showed how their number system worked using bamboo rods from numbers 1-9; until they used symbols to represent their numbers. Another interesting part of their number systems is the introduction of decimal place value; but they have no concept of zero. According to the Chinese, numbers have mystical powers. Numbers holds cosmic significance. They say that the odd numbers represent male while the even numbers are female, they also believe that number 4 brings bad luck to them while number 8 brings good fortune. One of their past times is answering the “magic square” which is said to be the early version of Sudoku. For an emperor’s life, mathematics is a vital element.  “The calendar and the movements of the planets influence all his decisions”. Because astronomers read the sky, they have a high position in the emperor’s court. “Everything in the emperor’s life was governed by the calendar”. One fun use of mathematics is the scheduling of the emperor’s sleeping nights with his women. He needs to sleep with 121 women in 15 nights. According to the mathematicians/astronomers that the scheduling of the emperor’s night of sleeping with his women is a geometric progression, where “a series of numbers in which you get from 1 number to the next by multiplying the same number each time. ” Chinese also taught us how to solve equations.

If China has no concept of the number zero, India has. They discovered it through moving a stone from one place to another, leaving the previous place, empty; hence, from something to nothing. India’s number system is closer to what we use in the present. They also learned that 1 divided by 0  is  infinity. They also introduced the concept of negative numbers due to the concept of borrowing money. Indians also studied the trigonometry- the study of the right triangle angle. This was derived because according to them the distance from earth to moon is relative. Lastly, the study of pi was also discussed in India.

                The Hindu Arabic that we learned from our elementary days came from the Islamic empire. They also introduced the study of algebra and quadratic equation. While in Italy, Leonardo of Pisa introduced a new number system. These show the rich contribution of the east to the world of mathematics.

While watching the second part of the Story of Maths, I learned that “may ibubuga pala ang mga countries sa east.” I always hear history saying that mathematics originated from Greece or parts of the west since philosophers were born there. This film widened my knowledge of the history of mathematics. It made me appreciate and proud of the countries in the east, since we know that “murag gina-daug-daug ra ta sa mga taga-west”.  Eastern people have also great minds.

The establishing shot of the Great Wall of China in the first part was good. Shots of the modern world- scenes of daily activities- were effective. It is appealing to the eyes; showing artefacts or ruins sometimes are boring to watch. There was a scene that the blocking was not used effectively, where Marcus was from afar and many people were passing by in front of him. It was an awkward shot for me, I think because until the end of that scene, he was never been focused. People were blocking the camera like covering the whole lens.  But in totality, the animated effects still give the film a different approach of a documentary film, which pulled it off.