“Genius of the
East” is the second of the 1-hour episodes in the series of “The Story of
Maths” by Professor Marcus Du Sautoy who travelled around the world to assess
and review the history of mathematics, to how did it exist, the reason of its
existence in respective areas of the world and its relevance to understanding
the relationship of the rules and patterns of nature to us, as well as in the
way of living. In this episode mathematics of China, India and the Middle East
were explored.
China built the
walls in order to protect its growing empire and at the same time, a protection
against the Mongols. Mathematics of engineering has contributed a lot to the construction
of this historical stature. Sautoy discovered ancient Chinese enthrallment to
patterns in numbers. Chinese’s were the first to use the decimal place number
system. However, they didn’t have a representation of zero. In addition,
mathematics also played role with Emperor’s in determining his most favorable successor
from the harem he has. Equations of ancient Chinese was the mathematics source
for identifying how internet cryptography encodes numbers.
It has been
discovered that India invented a representation of zero, a representation of “nothingness”.
Negative numbers were also created to represent credit. Another Indian innovation
was the existence of infinity and creation of trigonometry. Numbers in abstract
form are good representations of the number system.
This part of the
episode is a dedication to Muslim civilization (Middle East) due to their advancement
in science and mathematics. New language of algebra, evolution of a solution
and spread of Eastern knowledge to West with the aid of mathematicians were taken
into account. The numbers being used in today's generation is being followed from the pattern give by Hindu-Arabic Numeration System.
The Great Wall of China was indeed built by people with certain proficiency in math. The ancient Chinese 'engineers' really did an accomplishing job in protecting their nation and territory.
ReplyDeleteKung wala lang talaga ang Hindu-Arabic numerals ba, mahirap talaga ang life. To realize what it really meant gives the contribution more appealing. :)
ReplyDeleteAng galing talaga ng pagkakagawa ng Great Wall of China! To think na hindi patag ang pinagtayuan nila. :)
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ReplyDeleteWho would've thought that ancient civilizations used the same mathematics we learn today? It is even more astonishing to have known that they could build monuments such as the Great Wall without the technology we have today. Learning about the history of mathematics really does make us appreciate the science a little bit more.
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