Genius of the East
It's a good movie and seemed interesting when focusing oneself from listening. The visual representation of the different countries on their number system is clear and well interpreted.. Among the different topics, I am more interested on the magic square in China because it was so very idealistic to create a square of numbers where in you can get the sum of 15 in every patterns. China's number system was quiet easy even without the used of zero. They used mathematics in running the emperor's court and believe that math had a magical power.
After Marcus discussed about China, he then discussed the mathematics of India. Unlike China, Indian mathematics had already a concept of zero and they already included it in calculations. Trigonometry was mentioned in the movie and as I know, trigonometry had already started during the greek but it was in the Indian mathematics the trigonometry was fully flourished.
The next development of mathematics was in the Islamic Empire. They uses Hindu-Arabic Numerals as their number system. The Algebra also evolved in the Islamic Empire which lead to a huge break through in the Islam's mathematics. Also in that time, there was a transferred of Eastern mathematical knowledge to the West.
This episode seems more interesting and entertaining in a way that the representation was more aggressive and vivid.
I don't think that the documentary was better due to its special effects. But yes, it was helpful in conveying the mathematical concepts they were trying to explain to the audiences.
ReplyDeleteIt was not due to Islamic influence that their numeration system (Hindu-Arabic) spread into Italy. It was Leonardo of Pisa, a.k.a. Fibonacci who introduced and popularized it in Europe.He has traveled along the Mediterranean coast and have met merchants. Eventually, he learned their systems of doing arithmetic and realized the significance of Hindu-Arabic among others.
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