The Story of Maths

                The film, The Story of Maths, is a documentary film that narrates the history of Mathematics- where it originated and how it developed.  At first, math was just to make sense of the natural patterns. During the ancient times, in Egypt, math was used to count the patterns of seasons. The Egyptians would count the days before and after the flooding of the Nile River, since their agriculture was affected by the water from the Nile. They also have units of measurement in measuring their land area. They used their palms and hand-to-elbow measurements. Egyptians have also a unique number system. They used symbols to represent their numbers. Also they have their own way to multiply and divide, and fractions through the myth of” Horus eye. “ The derivation of the area of the circle was also explained using stones. Proportion was used in building the Great Pyramid.  In Damascus, measuring weights was discussed. The Babylonians used tablets to document their number systems a long time ago. Scribes were the official recorders of the wealthy people. They were the ones who carved in tablets. Their number system was base 60; it is where 60 seconds came from, measuring time. They have the account of how to measure length, as well as symmetrical shapes. Pythagoras has a great contribution on the field of math. One of these is the Pythagorean Theorem, while Plato contributed in the study of geometric shapes and Alexandria contributed in the study o f measuring the area of regular shapes. 

                Honestly, it was my first time to watch a film about the history of math.  Through this film I’ve gained new learning about math. I like histories. I am fond of knowing the origin of things. It is because it can help me understand their present state. Watching the film made me realize that the invention of math was done to help people in their problems and in their daily situations. Personally, I would always ask what’s the relevance in my everyday life those lessons I have learned in math during my high school days until college. I often thought to myself, “How can I apply this to my everyday situation?” “How will I use the square root of 144 in cleaning the house?”  I really wonder, “Why do I need to learn these calculus and trigonometry and algebra? Until now I can’t figure it out.  Because of this kind of thinking, I generalize the lessons in math as another not-applicable-lesson. I have overlooked the purpose of fractions, multiplication, addition, decimals, exponents, etc. These are the fundamentals of math, and were made to help us in our daily lives.  This film opened my mind that math is very helpful in our day to day living.  It is also interesting to know how mathematician derived their equations or how they discovered things such as shapes, irrational numbers, pi, etc.

                The film was educational but it seems hard to comprehend. It was not easy to understand other concepts like how did it happen that 111 is equals to 3661? I also didn’t understand the multiplication part using the “chips”. Maybe it was the accent and the use of unfamiliar words that made it harder for me to understand or maybe it was just me that didn’t understand at all. But since it was a story of Maths, I assume that their target audiences to watch it are those who are not mathematicians but ordinary people who are interested to learn math.  By “learn” I mean that they don’t know about it yet. So, it means that they should go down to the level of the average people. Using words flashed on the screen was helpful since some words uttered were not that clear but maybe more words to flash on the screen like names of the mathematicians or important events can be more helpful. Words like “Horus eye” was hard to figure out how to spell it just  by hearing it. Actually as I was listening to it and taking down notes, I don’t know how to spell it. Being unsure of the spelling made me feel uncertain whether I got it right or not- kind of weird uncertain feeling. The transition from one place to another was not clear to me. I don’t know what part was the shift of civilization from Egyptian to Babylonian. I thought it was still under the Egyptian civilization, but then it was Babylonian. The use of maps might help to show the transition of places. Nevertheless, the use of visual effects was very good. It was not boring to watch even though it was a documentary film. Interviews of experts were also helpful in giving credibility to the topic discussed.