MATHEMATICS AND CIVILIZATION I

MATHEMATICS AND CIVILIZATION I Mathematics, the most universal human invention to ever exist, is humanity’s common language. The origins of mathematics. Using hieratic writing. “The Elements” written by Euclid. Al’Khowarizmi. - The Ancient World - Invention of numbers and Mathematics - Origins of Mathematics go back to the Stone Age - Counting methods - Mesopotamia - The Mesopotamians invented the first system of cuneiform writing. - The Sumerians invented writing to count not to tell stories - The main mathematical legacy they left for us today consists in the sexagesimal system based on the number 60 - Though we live completely immersed in the decimal system, we still use the sexagesimal system - The Rhind Papyrus and the Moscow Papyrus have provided us with a great deal of information about Egyptians, creators of the decimal system - Using hieratic writing - The Greeks were great theoreticians - Erathosthenes - Aristarchus of Samos - “The Elements” written by Euclid, is perhaps the geometry text book that has had most influence in history - Archimedes and the constant Pi - Positional numeration - The Babylonians, the Chinese, the Mayans and the Indians and positional annotation - The “zero” - Al’Khowarizmi : the main Arab mathematician and the Algorithms - Numbers are the real Esperanto of our world. It doesn’t matter where we are or the language we speak, all humans understand the numbers.