The Story of Maths Part 1

Everything is possible because of mathematics but we ignore these things thinking that they are not important. We only see what’s concluded but we ignore everything behind it. Technology wouldn’t be possible without the discovery of mathematics. Our cellphones, computers, houses, buildings and others wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for math. Without mathematics, I think students would be happy but then the world would be so erratic.

The documentary “The Story of Maths” discusses the history of math and how it has changed the world today. While watching the documentary, I found it interesting how people before were curious about everything and started to answer their questions through the use of mathematics. First were the Egyptians. They used math to solve their daily problems. One example would be the situation in the Nile River. People before were counting the days as to when it would flood again. This situation made me think that people were really intellectual and problem solvers even with just little resource and information. If I were there during that time, I would just expect flood every day but I guess the situation was that severe that they had to really know when the flood would occur. While trying to solve their problem, they saw a pattern and they used this to distinguish when the flood would occur. There may be some errors but it was still close to the day the Nile River flooded. With the information gathered, they were able to prepare themselves for the flood and less people were harmed. This simple solution was a great help to the world of mathematics.

Another contribution of Egyptians to the world of mathematics can be observed in the pyramids. It is the concept of the Pythagorean Theorem. The pyramids were built using this concept. Before, I thought that the pyramids were just blocks stacked in the shape of a pyramid but I guess I was wrong. I also thought that the pyramids were easy to make, minus the labor, because you would just stack big blocks but there was more to it. The pyramids were hollow. It was the home of great leaders. I was wondering before why people were really fascinated with the pyramids. But now, I see it in a different light. There is really more to it than just what we see, thanks to mathematics.

While watching the movie, I had a hard time understanding the Babylonian system. The professor in the movie was so fast in elucidating things that I had a hard time processing all the information. I understood all the things the professor said in the movie when our professor explained it in an easier and slower way. When I watched the movie again, that was when I understood what he was saying. The Babylonians contributions were the base 60 which is used in time, quadratic equation and the concept of zero.

Greeks’ contributions are more on theorems or proof. One famous contribution of Greeks is the Pythagorean Theorem. While watching this part of the movie, honestly, I had a hard time following because of all the information. But to sum it all up, Greek’s contribution was of big help to what mathematics is now. Geometry is just one of their contributions.

Basically, the movie was interesting and informative. Math was just numbers and basic operations for me but now my perspective about math has changed. Everything we see, mathematics has contributed to it.