Ancient Advances In Mathematics Essay Example For Students

Ancient Advances In Mathematics Essay Ancient Advances in MathematicsAncient knowledge of the sciences was often wrong and whollyunsatisfactory by modern standards. However not all of the knowledge of themore learned peoples of the past was false. In fact without people like Euclidor Plato we may not have been as advanced in this age as we are. Mathematics isan adventure in ideas. Within the history of mathematics, one finds the ideasand lives of some of the most brilliant people in the history of mankindspopulace upon Earth. First man created a number system of base 10. Certainly, it is not justcoincidence that man just so happens to have ten fingers or ten toes, for whenour primitive ancestors first discovered the need to count they definitely wouldhave used their fingers to help them along just like a child today. Whenprimitive man learned to count up to ten he somehow differentiated himself fromother animals. As an object of a higher thinking, man invented ten number-sounds. The needs and possessions of primitive man were not many. When theneed to count over ten aroused, he simply combined the number-sounds relatedwith his fingers. So, if he wished to define one more than ten, he simply saidone-ten. Thus our word eleven is simply a modern form of the Teutonic ein-lifon. Since those first sounds were created, man has only added five new basicnumber-sounds to the ten primary ones. They are hundred, thousand, million, billion (a thousand millions in America, a million millions inEngland), trillion (a million millions in America, a million-million millionsin England). Because primitive man invented the same number of number-sounds ashe had fingers, our number system is a decimal one, or a scale based on ten,consisting of limitless repetitions of the first ten number sounds. Undoubtedly, if nature had given man thirteen fingers instead of ten,our number system would be much changed. For instance, with a base thirteennumber system we would call fifteen, two-thirteens. While some intelligent andwell-schooled scholars might argue whether or not base ten is the most adequatenumber system, base ten is the irreversible favorite among all the nations. Of course, primitive man most certainly did not realize the concept ofthe number system he had just created. Man simply used the number-soundsloosely as adjectives. So an amount of ten fish was ten fish, whereas ten is anadjective describing the noun fish. Soon the need to keep tally on ones counting raised. The simplesolution was to make a vertical mark. Thus, on many caves we see a number ofmarks that the resident used to keep track of his possessions such a fish orknives. This way of record keeping is still taught today in our schools underthe name of tally marks. The earliest continuous record of mathematical activity is from thesecond millennium BC When one of the few wonders of the world were createdmathematics was necessary. Even the earliest Egyptian pyramid proved that themakers had a fundamental knowledge of geometry and surveying skills. Theapproximate time period was 2900 BCThe first proof of mathematical activity in written form came about onethousand years later. The best known sources of ancient Egyptian mathematics inwritten format are the Rhind Papyrus and the Moscow Papyrus. The sourcesprovide undeniable proof that the later Egyptians had intermediate knowledge ofthe following mathematical problems: applications to surveying, salarydistribution, calculation of area of simple geometric figures surfaces andvolumes, simple solutions for first and second degree equations. Bladerunner: Humanity of Deckard & Roy Batty EssayUp until this point in time, no previous culture had dealt with the negatedabstract side of mathematics, of with the concept of the mathematical proof. The Greeks were interested not only in the application of mathematicsbut also in its philosophical significance, which was especially appreciated byPlato (429-348 BC). Plato was of the richer class of gentlemen of leisure. He,like others of his class, looked down upon the work of slaves and craftsworker. He sought relief, for the tiresome worries of life, in the study of philosophyand personal ethics. Within the walls of Platos academy at least three greatmathematicians were taught, Theaetetus, known for the theory of irrational,Eodoxus, the theory of proportions, and also Archytas (I couldnt find what madehim great, but three books mentioned him so I will too). Indeed the motto ofPlatos academy Let no one ignorant of geometry enter within these walls wasfitting for the scene of the great minds who gathered here. Another great mathematician of the Greeks was Pythagoras who providedone of the first mathematical proofs and discovered incommensurable magnitudes,or irrational numbers. The Pythagorean theorem relates the sides of a righttriangle with their corresponding squares. The discovery of irrationalmagnitudes had another consequence for the Greeks: since the length ofdiagonals of squares could not be expressed by rational numbers in the form ofA over B, the Greek number system was inadequate for describing them. As, you might have realized, without the great minds of the past ourmathematical experiences would be quite different from the way they are today. Yet as some famous (or maybe infamous) person must of once said From down herethe only way is up, so you might say that from now, 1996, the future ofmathematics can only improve for the better. BibliographyBall, W. W. Rouse. A Short Account of The History of Mathematics. DoverPublications Inc. Mineloa, N.Y. 1985Beckmann, Petr. A History of Pi. St. Martins Press. New York, N.Y. 1971De Camp, L.S. The Ancient Engineers. Double Day. Garden City, N.J. 1963Hooper, Alfred. Makers of Mathematics. Random House. New York, N.Y. 1948Morley, S.G. The Ancient Maya. Stanford University Press. 1947. Newman, J.R. The World of Mathematics. Simon and Schuster. New York, N.Y. 1969. Smith, David E. History of Mathematics. Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, N.Y. 1991. Struik, Dirk J. A Concise History of Mathematics. Dover Publications Inc. Mineola, N.Y. 1987