The World’s Mathematical Journey

Everything in this world is related to mathematics and we couldn’t surely survive without it. Mathematics is one of the very important things in our lives and people really depend on it. The video was about the development of mathematics from where it started up to the complicated math in the present times. The presenter, Marcus du Sautoy, explored places where the first science of mathematics emerged. These places were Egypt, Babylonia and Greece. He first went to Egypt and explained how multiplication and division were discovered. Their mathematical discoveries were recorded in a papyrus and so, records of them have survived. The ancient Egypt also discovered mathematics from fractions and shapes. One shape that really caught my attention was the great pyramids because Egyptians used the golden ratio in making them and the pyramids were not the only ones which were done using the golden ratio but it is also used in the other field of arts. Pythagoras’s theorem and the Pythagorean triangle were also explained in making the pyramids. Marcus du Sautoy then went to the Babylonia and showed the discovery of measuring and weighing. He explained that the scribe records were kept on clay tablets. He also gave details to how the based 60 numbers were discovered and so as the place values, angular measurements and the zero. The discoveries of quadratic equations, symmetrical shapes, right angle triangles and irrational numbers were also shown when Marcus was in Babylonia. He lastly went to Greece and explained that mathematics is the bedrock of knowledge. By knowing mathematics, we know reality. This is when he introduced some important people behind the development of mathematics like Plato, Archimedes and Euclid.

Mathematics is applied in all aspects of life and it is so amazing that the reason why mathematics appeared is because people were starting to form patterns and make connections to order our world.

Knowing the history of mathematics is important to us students since most of us do not appreciate this subject at all. We take this subject just for the sake of having the required subject and not having an interest to it. This is mainly because mathematics is really hard to understand. While I was watching the video, many things amazed me and made me think that mathematics is a really cool subject if you just look deeper into it and if you could just understand it.

                For me, the video was cool but I admit that sometimes I just lose my focus in watching it because I think my attention span is too short. At least it wasn’t that boring because the speakers were loud and I can at least understand what the presenter was saying even if he had a British accent. The effects were really cool and funny, but still amazing. I hope to see another video that can really change my views on mathematics.