A Taste of European Mathematics
The
third instalment of the Story of Math took us in Europe. Well, I already have
great expectations for this instalment because I know and believe that the
greatest mathematicians were really coming from Europe. I will not be biased
this time (though I am still firm that Asian mathematician can stand shoulder
to shoulder with these men as well). Come on, we have heard and saw these
Europeans in our textbooks and documentaries and let’s face it, their
contributions and discoveries are very impressive. Now that I have realized it,
I guess the reason why most mathematics discoveries were concentrated in Europe
is because each of the country in Europe was battling each other of who is
really the most powerful and advance. In line with that, science and mathematics
were taken into consideration for these can have different applications that
the state and military can utilize to improve its status as the most powerful
country.
The
movie navigated first to France where the likes of Pierro dela Francesca and
Renè Descaretes top the list in terms of mathematics contributions. Francesca
is well known for his art, The Flagellation of Christ. In this masterpiece, he
was able to use the power of Perspective by showing a three dimensional world
in a two dimensional picture. Who could also forget about Cartesian Plane, one
of Descartes’ contributions. With that, he was able to merge algebra and
geometry. He said: “Numbers could erase disputable uncertainties.”
Next
stop is in Britain where the Calculus was born. The birth of Calculus was an
issue because two mathematicians coincidentally have similar works about it.
Isaac Newton who is more famous on his Laws of Gravity was a actually a
mathematician as well. He is the first to develop Calculus but he did not
publish it rather he just shared his ideas with his friends. Gottfried Leibniz,
on the other hand, has the similar work but at the end it was Newton who won
the credit of the developer of Calculus. Ironically, it was Leibniz’s Calculus
that was more popularly used because Newton’s Calculus was said to be clumsy
and not easy to use.
Sadly,
other European mathematicians had not been considered as gifted mathematicians
in their own hometown. Euler, for example, found his deserved treatment as mathematician
in Russia. Nevertheless, it did not discourage him. Instead, one of his
contributions is the notation eiπ = -1. Many personalities are yet
to be mentioned, some are popular some are not. Nevertheless, what’s important
is the contribution that they left us. Those were truly great things and we
should thank them for that.
Once
again, Marcus du Sautoy never failed to impress me not just with his
intelligent deliver and presentation but also with his humour. It was good that
he lets scholars and men from the academe to partake in the accumulation of
facts. In that way, the viewers would not think that it was all one-man show. I
also praise him for trying his best to go to different places for the sake of
real encounter with the society that the mathematicians before belong.
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