by ; Amanina Arif
Friday 9 March 2012
Thursday 8 March 2012
The History Of MATHEMATICS!
History of mathematics
The area of study known as the history of mathematics is primarily an investigation into the origin of discoveries in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, an investigation into the mathematical methods and notation of the past.
Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments have come to light only in a few locales. The most ancient mathematical texts available are Plimpton 322 (Babylonian mathematics c. 1900 BC),[2] theRhind Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian mathematics c. 2000-1800 BC)[3] and the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian mathematics c. 1890 BC). All of these texts concern the so-called Pythagorean theorem, which seems to be the most ancient and widespread mathematical development after basic arithmetic and geometry.
The study of mathematics as a subject in its own right begins in the 6th century BC with thePythagoreans, who coined the term "mathematics" from the ancient Greek μάθημα(mathema), meaning "subject of instruction".[4] Greek mathematics greatly refined the methods (especially through the introduction of deductive reasoning and mathematical rigor inproofs) and expanded the subject matter of mathematics.[5] Chinese mathematics made early contributions, including a place value system.[6][7] The Hindu-Arabic numeral systemand the rules for the use of its operations, in use throughout the world today, likely evolved over the course of the first millennium AD in India and was transmitted to the west via Islamic mathematics.[8][9] Islamic mathematics, in turn, developed and expanded the mathematics known to these civilizations.[10] Many Greek and Arabic texts on mathematics were then translated into Latin, which led to further development of mathematics in medieval Europe.
From ancient times through the Middle Ages, bursts of mathematical creativity were often followed by centuries of stagnation. Beginning in Renaissance Italy in the 16th century, new mathematical developments, interacting with new scientific discoveries, were made at an increasing pace that continues through the present day.
Prehistoric mathematics
The origins of mathematical thought lie in the concepts of number, magnitude, and form.[11] Modern studies of animal cognition have shown that these concepts are not unique to humans. Such concepts would have been part of everyday life in hunter-gatherer societies. The idea of the "number" concept evolving gradually over time is supported by the existence of languages which preserve the distinction between "one", "two", and "many", but not of numbers larger than two.[11]
The oldest known possibly mathematical object is the Lebombo bone, discovered in the Lebombo mountains of Swaziland and dated to approximately 35,000 BC.[12] It consists of 29 distinct notches cut into a baboon's fibula.[13] Also prehistoric artifacts discovered in Africa andFrance, dated between 35,000 and 20,000 years old,[14] suggest early attempts to quantify time.[15]
The Ishango bone, found near the headwaters of the Nile river (northeastern Congo), may be as much as 20,000 years old and consists of a series of tally marks carved in three columns running the length of the bone. Common interpretations are that the Ishango bone shows either the earliest known demonstration of sequences of prime numbers[13] or a six month lunar calendar.[16] In the book How Mathematics Happened: The First 50,000 Years, Peter Rudman argues that the development of the concept of prime numbers could only have come about after the concept of division, which he dates to after 10,000 BC, with prime numbers probably not being understood until about 500 BC. He also writes that "no attempt has been made to explain why a tally of something should exhibit multiples of two, prime numbers between 10 and 20, and some numbers that are almost multiples of 10."[17]
Predynastic Egyptians of the 5th millennium BC pictorially represented geometric designs. It has been claimed that megalithic monuments inEngland and Scotland, dating from the 3rd millennium BC, incorporate geometric ideas such as circles, ellipses, and Pythagorean triples in their design.[18]
All of the above are disputed however, and the currently oldest undisputed mathematical usage is in Babylonian and dynastic Egyptian sources. Thus it took human beings at least 45,000 years from the attainment of behavioral modernity and language (generally thought to be a long time before that) to develop mathematics as such.
Shabina Balachandran :D
Pythagoras; founder of pythagoras theorem
Pythagoras
c. 570 BC - c. 495 BC (aged around 75)
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.
Pythagoras
made influential contributions to philosophy and
religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist,
but he is best known for the Pythagorean theorem which bears his name. However, because
legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratic
philosophers, one can give account of his teachings to a little
extent, and some have questioned whether he contributed much to mathematics and natural philosophy. Many of the
accomplishments credited to Pythagoras may actually have been accomplishments
of his colleagues and successors. Whether or not his disciples believed that
everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate
reality is unknown. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a
philosopher, or lover of wisdom and
Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato,
and through him, all of Western philosophy.
By Khai Ying (:
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