The
documentary film written and presented by Marcus du Sautoy, a British professor
from the University of Oxford, titled “The Story of Maths” is a four-part
series which outlined the aspects of the history of mathematics.
In
the second episode titled “The Genius of the East”, Marcus unwrapped the theme
of the episode when he said that, “mathematics has been a pivot on which human
life depends”. It was clear from this statement and from the title of the
episode itself that the main objective of this episode, is to unravel the bars
that holds the “untold stories of mathematics of the east” by showing to the
viewers the civilizations that made mathematics flourished even more to a new
height.
From
the first episode, I almost thought that all of the mathematical breakthroughs
were credited to the western people especially to the Greeks. I was
flabbergasted when I have realized from this episode that, “due credit has not
been given to the great mathematical breakthroughs that ultimately changed the
world we live in, that would transform the West and give birth to the modern
world”. This pertains to the logical mathematical discoveries and breakthroughs
contributed by the eastern people to the gigantic world of mathematics.
Top
on the list, the discovery of “zero” as a number by the Indians representing
“the movement from something to nothing”, the negative numbers, improved the
concepts of trigonometry which was started by the greeks, the Indian
mathematicians could explore the solar system without ever having to leave the
surface of the Earth, the breakthrough in the search for the sine function of
every angle by Madhava and her concept of infinite numbers. The different
number system in China. Also, the discovery of Algebra in Morocco. The formula
of pi which thought to be discovered first by a German mathematician Leibniz,
but was amazingly discovered in India two centuries earlier by Madhava.
I
really appreciated Marcus because he really tried to give logical and concrete
examples to every ideas he tried to convey making the principles
understandable. Though, I got lost and bored to some of his examples like that
of the “Fibonacci sequence”.
It
seems incredible that these were discovered by the eastern people centuries
before Western mathematicians did and with that, I am thanking MST3 for letting
me know bits of pieces of what made the mathematics of today
I never knew that the host himself also wrote the script for the documentary, not until now. LOL
ReplyDeleteYes, I can totally relate. I used to think before that the 'discoverers' of mathematics was just the ancient Western people since I've heard about them mostly. But due to the documentary, now I know. Now, we know.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some parts of the movie was boring and difficult to understand but then through this movie we also discovered a lot about the east.
ReplyDeleteindeed, the east was able to contribute A LOT to our world today. I also had the same thought when we watched the first part. i thought what could surpass the discoveries by the west. then boom! here comes the east :D (yeay go east! east represent! lol)
ReplyDeletePS. aww but the bunnies he used to explain the Fibonacci sequence were cute though :3
you have made a great review. its nice how you mentioned how this course added extra knowledge to you; and probably have increased your liking with mathematics :)
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by your movie review, you stated very clearly the contributions of the East and how important their contributions for us. Good job :) !
ReplyDelete