Math Demystified

Giza Necropolis

BBC Four’s The Story of Maths, deftly presented by Oxford professor and mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, is essentially a primer to mathematics, a field commonly thought of as inaccessible to all but a privileged few. The four-part series mainly deals with its history, with particular importance on its development through the centuries, and the role it played in the advancement of human civilization, cementing the discipline as one of mankind’s greatest achievements.

The first installment of the series, entitled The Language of the Universe, opens the door on mathematics as a dynamic human activity grounded on contemporary and historical societies. Practically all civilizations had mathematics in their arsenal (of course, they wouldn’t develop to be civilizations in the first place if they didn’t use it extensively), but because each civilization used their tools differently, the series does not scrimp on the social, political, and historical contexts through which it has evolved to facilitate understanding among the viewers. After all, the series touts itself as a primer to the discipline. For instance, some of the early civilizations such as the Egyptian, and to a lesser extent, the Babylonian, used mathematics as a means to an end; its usage was hugely pragmatic, limited to problem solving in response to everyday needs. On the other hand, the Greek civilization, with its labors focused more on the mind rather than of the body, expanded upon the mathematics of Egypt, formalizing it through equations and generalizations.

While it is universally acknowledged that mathematics is a daunting field, the series does a brilliant job of making the discipline accessible to everyone, and that in itself is remarkable and important since mathematics is a field that builds on its past and becomes increasingly complex. 

Originally published: 12/10/13 3:59 AM PST