How the East changed the World (movie review part 2)

Why are Asians stereotyped as "math geniuses"? well, this may be the reason. 

           The documentary now transfers to Asia, where early civilizations gave huge chunks of contribution to the story of mathematics. One of the most famous contribution of them all especially for students like me is Algebra. The video clearly illustrates and explains the development of mathematics in early Asian civilizations and it will sure amaze those who are not ignorant of the story of mathematics thru time.

Being a graduate of a Chinese High School, I learned some basic Chinese language, including how to count. Honestly, it took me a while to even memorize the characters and how they were pronounced because I had no further interest in learning Chinese. It was troublesome and not that interesting for me, until I had the opportunity to watch the 2^nd part of the documentary “The Story of Maths” which gave a great insight on the history of the early Chinese number system. The Chinese came up with their number system to solve everyday problems that usually involved counting their produce and other things. The Chinese was very interested in astronomy and they also used numbers to aid them in their study of space. As depicted in the video, the Chinese are very passionate about mathematics that even great warriors had interest in math. This passion soon resulted into the discovery of more mathematical content, like equations. The results may have resulted only in approximates but knowing that these came from the early times would truly give you a sense of appreciation on the subject. India also contributed a great piece of content to mathematics today. Indian mathematicians came up with the idea of zero (0) and the use of infinite and some more calculations using fractions. They also came up with the use of pi in circles. The video documentary clearly shows the steps of the development of mathematics in India and its results and contributions to mankind.

                Would the large size of the Asian continent be the reason why Asia gave so many contributions to mathematics? Or is it the passion of these early mathematicians to discover, develop and solve problems for their society. Mankind’s thirst for development and discovery has truly lead us to great advancement in the sciences, of course, mathematics is one great development that we should not take for granted.