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A Movie Review on BBC The Story of Maths: The Genius
of the East
Like everything that is born or
developed in the world, things would eventually end. In the case of this second
episode in the BBC The Story of Maths, it is the Greek spotlight that has
ended. However, the decline of ancient Greece did not become an end point to
Mathematics. The development of Math continued to the East and so, this is
where, Marcus du Sautoy picked up his exploration.
In this continuation of his
exploration, he visited China and tackled the development of Mathematics and
how it has helped establish the imperial China. Math in China has been helpful
in the field of engineering (e.g. Great Wall of China) as well as also,
innovating the people to become more efficient in their everyday lives. For
example, it is in these times that they have started to use the decimal system,
conceptualizing “zero” (but not giving emphasis) and believing in the symbolism
in numbers. Next, he went to India. The concept of zero has been given meaning
in this part of history. More numbers have then been discovered --- from
negative numbers to infinity. The last place he visited was the Middle East
where cubic solutions and algebra were invented. Mathematics is conceptualizing
and making or giving meaning to those concepts.
Without these slow steps in the history
of Mathematics, we would not be able to try to make sense or even find some
solutions for our everyday living. Our numerical system is due to the
Hindu-Arabic numerals that they have come up with. If it wasn’t for that, I
guess, the world will be in a chaos trying to estimate and/or mix-and-match
things. No one would understand how to manage, how to interpret, how to
balance, etc. The evolution of Math is still moving through the invention of
more concepts that are being discovered from time to time, civilization to
civilization, by us.
There is something about your title that I don't get and I can't relate to the documentary review. Can you tell me about it? :D
ReplyDeleteThank God for the Arabs. I really would wonder too on how I would figure out how much would it cost me to buy a bag of candies without the Hindu-Arabic numerals. :3
ReplyDeleteNot only Science but also Math is encompassing. It is comprehensive and encompasses broad range of phenomena such as from the most fundamental entity to the most complex structures. As young biologist, relating math to science, just like in phylogenetic tree, an organism starts as simple unit until such time it evolved through natural selection and became more intricate as time pass. mehehe :D
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