Spaces in Between

After the excitement brought to us by the geniuses of the east, it is now time to look up to the brains of the North or "The Frontiers of Space". This is another episode of The Story of Maths and here, we look at another phase of innovations and developments that Mathematics has to offer to the world. This episode was very exciting for me because I was really waiting for the episode where the familiar names would be elaborated and discussed and finally, it has arrived.

First off was Piero della Francesca. His greatest and most awesome contribution, as shown in the film was the Flagellation of Christ. The original painting was not shown due to its very high value perhaps and it was kept from being viewed on television. However, the astounding part was the painting was made into a life-sized model where Marcus could walk through it and explained the concept of perspective intricately. He explained that Piero was the first to fully understand the concept of perspective and that he applied this to his masterpiece. His work paved a new way in understanding geometry. The reason behind this was that Piero was not only an exceptional artist but he was also an impressive mathematician.

Next was during the 17th century where there were the people took leaps in discovering the mysteries of mathematics. By this time, it was Europe's time to shine after the Middle East has basked in glory through Math. The focus of this era was about things in motion and it all started in a small village named after the illustrious Descartes. He was just a sickly boy who lost his mother at a very young age. However, this did not stop him from revolutionizing the world through Math. I could say that he was lazy because he stayed in bed quite late but this laziness was quite productive since he could concentrate on thinking about mathematical concepts. He tried to keep this up all his life and thanks to this meditation, we now enjoy the knowledge and apply them in problems. It truly amazes me how he was able to concentrate more on math rather than falling asleep again. It was just plainly awesome. But the real dumbfounding moment was when he dreamt that mathematics could clear up the blurs in the uncertain. Oh how entertaining and fulfilling would it be to have dreams that would be written throughout the course of history and are essential in the lives of human beings.

             

Then the part came where a first class mathematician suggested that Math and science as an evidence of the existence of God. This has certainly caught my attention. It was because I have heard that Mathematics and Natural Sciences should not be related to religion or to God’s existence because no matter what, they would always contradict. However, I had this one class in elementary where the teacher represented the belief and existence of God with numbers. The number 1 would represent the belief and actual existence of God and -1 for the not believing in God and if God does not actually exist. So if you add 1 plus 1, meaning, you believe in God and that God actually exists, you get 2. If you add 1 and -1 where you believe in God but He does not exist, you get zero. If you add -1 and 1 again where you don’t believe in God but He actually exists, you get zero. Lastly, add -1 and -1 if you do not believe in God’s existence and that God does not exist, you get -2. So it would be better to believe in God and get a positive result. After all, what’s there to lose?   

There were others that were mentioned like Pierre de Fermat whose contribution was to protect transactions that are using credit cards on the internet which was a very important invention as well. Then it was Isaac Newton's time to shine. His brilliant works in  Mathematics and Physics were uncovered. Gottfried Leibniz was also mentioned as being the rival of Newton. He contributed to logic, philosophy and of course Mathematics. Newton did not want to share the credit for Calculus and so he wrote a report where he accused Leibniz of plagiarism. Leibniz was depressed and died leaving Newton for 11 more years. However, the irony is that, the Math that became famous and is being used more is that of Leibniz and not of Newton. Then the Bernoulli family was also mentioned. the Bernoullis contributed a knowledge to calculus which has been used in lots of fields which revolutionized equations and solutions. He then mention Leonard Euler, a mathematician, as well as a physicist. He also contributed to calculus and graph theory as well. He was dubbed the father of topology. Then, Gauss was discussed. He was the first one to explain the new dimension of numbers, imaginary numbers. But his personality changed. From being shy, he became grumpy and even distressful. He also questioned Euclid's geometry because it's basis was of space being flat. Next was  János Bolyai who was titled to be one of the discoverers of Non-Euclidean geometry. Gauss continued to discover how prime numbers were formulated and this provided the frameworrk for may Beihrranmann,

Here is another way to view Math. It's not just a subject that should be seen in a superficial way. There is definitely more to it than just umbers and patterns. It requires good analytical thinking and of course practice. And of course, we have a lot of great minds to thank for the knowledge that we are enjoying today.