Prelude

The third episode of the documentary “The Story of Maths” now takes us into Europe. One of the places where mathematics further evolved from the ideas of the east that led to what we of the modern world now knew. In this episode, many of the great minds in the field of mathematics were given credits to their contribution on the development of mathematics. A development that gave us a new perspective over mathematics

                Pierro della Francesca was the first one on the list, he was notable painter who painted the Flagellation of Christ. Along with every stroke of the brush Pierro also applied mathematics in the art work to create a 3D Perspective from a 2D surface which paved the way to a new perspective on geometry. Next on the list, we have Rene Descartes whose contribution is on the development of a bridge between algebra and geometry by formulating the equations used in curved lines.  Another great mind featured in the documentary was Fermat, who first taught of the modern number theory. At first, Fermat maybe was so bored that he played with number trying to find pattern in and drawing a generalization about it. What he didn’t realize was that the result of his boredom is now being used in securing ones hard earned bucks. Of course who would’ve forgot about Isaac Newton, a very famous person in the academe even after his death for his discovery and legacy of calculus, a new way of describing  things in motion. Today calculus is an essential knowledge used throughout the world as mathematics of motion. Shortly after Newton another man in the name of Leibniz was able to discover calculus. Leibniz was accused of plagiarism spurring debate about to whom the credit should be given between the two but after all it was Leibniz’s notation that became popular and not Newton’s. Following the ideas of Leibniz, the Bernoullis also made a fortune for their name as one of those practitioners of calculus in solving various problems. In another part of the world in Russia, Euler established himself as someone at par with the great minds of Europe as a mathematician through his discovery of numbers such as e, Euler’s number and γ Euler’s constant.  Another man dubbed as the prince of math named Carl Friedrich Gauss shed light to the mysteries of imaginary numbers which earned him his ticket to be one of the famous mathematicians of his time. One name which is not really familiar to me was Bolyai who discovered hyperbolic geometry.

                This episode was very interesting since many discoveries were made that boosted the knowledge of humanity. Thanks to all those great minds of the past we now enjoy the comforts of sturdy buildings, communicating with our loved ones over great distances, and the joy of knowing all these nerdy stuff that most people even know. This episode is like a prelude to something new giving us glimpses that the ancient world didn’t think existed.  I enjoyed the episode to the point that it made me wish I was also alive during that time had a simple life and became someone like Newton, Gauss and all those names mentioned above. Truly this episode brought me to the past age, an age that was able to encompass ad witness the golden age of mathematics the shift from a simple tool used in everyday lives to the establishment of modern technologies that has shaped the world we live in today and will continue to do so in the future.